pregnancy update week 25

I had an OB appointment this week, so I figured it would be a good time to do a pregnancy update.

Since this is my blog, and family record, I will be honest.  I have been horribly miserable once I started the gestational diabetes diet.

I have felt so, so terrible.  My whole body aches ALL the time, and just doing simple tasks, like picking up the toys in the family room, feel like I am slugging through mud and doing a major feat of defying gravity just to put one foot in front of the other.  Going up the stairs might as well be completing the Iron Man.

My body has never, ever felt to fatigued, weighted down, achy and flat out like it was trying to just shut down.  Along with the physical, I have been slammed into an awful mental and emotional rut as well.  Just feeling down in every way.

Not to mention, that when your body feels like it is being weighted down with bags of wet sand, and your energy is basically non-existent, it is extremely hard to take care of a family and a home. 

When the kids ask for even the simplest thing, like a glass of water right after I finally sit down, I get so grumpy and upset, because of the pain and energy it takes to get that glass of water.  I have 4 kids, who need something about every 5 minutes of the day.  Add that up, and mom has not been a very nice mom. 

Needless to say, things have been very rough, and the guilt I have felt for not being able to gracefully keep up my normal routine and meeting everyone's needs, while being pregnant, dealing with gestational diabetes, and all the crap that has come with it, has been next to overwhelming.  The guilt has been the worst part.

I decided I had nothing to lose by telling all of this to my OB at my appointment.  We have both established on some weird level that my body is not exactly handling this pregnancy very well.  We knew this could be the case coming into this pregnancy, and that my body may not even be able to get pregnant anymore at all.

But, I was able to get pregnant, and whether or not it feels like my body is trying it's hardest to reject this pregnancy, through the grace of God, it continues to move forward, and I am thankful for that.

Anyway, after I told my OB what I was feeling, she decided to run some blood work and see what on Earth was happening to my body this time, aside from the obvious part of growing a human in my stomach.

I got a call the next day and was so relieved to know that I am not just crazy and falling apart.  There was actually something wrong, and it is an easy fix. 

My Magnesium was very, very low.  Of course no one told me, but with the diet I am on, this can happen.  In my case, it REALLY happened.  Magnesium plays a huge part with muscles, nerves, and even moods and depression.  A deficiency of this can cause horrible muscle fatigue, heaviness, aches, cramps, and extreme physical fatigue as well.  It can also cause some pretty low morale.

hhhmmm, sound familiar.  Oh yeah, that would pretty much describe my own personal hell I have been going through lately.

Next on the list, my iron was low.

This was weird, because all I can really eat is meat, green vegies, cheese, and all sorts of iron filled foods.  Either way, this also plays a really big role in fatigue, depression, and low energy.

The fix...just drive over to Walgreens, get some supplements, and take them.  With the Magnesium, I will take a lot of them for a while.  No problem. 
As far as the iron, I am a pro at iron.  Remember that time in 2009 when I lost over 1/3 of my blood during a miscarriage, and took iron for almost a year trying to grow my blood back.  Yeah, I can do iron.

 It has been 2 days, and I am starting to notice a slight difference in energy and mood already.  The muscle heaviness and aches are still there, but lessening.  Most importantly, I have hope.  I have hope that things will get better for me physically...just in time for the 3rd trimester.  Anyone else seeing the irony in this?  Hey, I will take what I can get.

So, that is how I am doing with the pregnancy at this point.

Now on to my favorite part, the baby.

She is doing great.  Heart beat was right on target, and she is growing a lot.  I can feel her move every day now, and a lot at night.  She is a little resilient thing and is doing just great floating around inside of me tasting all of these new low carb foods and vitamins we are trying out.  She seems to like them.  :)

She is worth all of this, and I count my blessings every day that even though it seems like this pregnancy is one complication after the next for me, she is doing fine. If one of us is going to have complications and issues, I thank my Heavenly Father that it is me. 

Oh, I can't wait to hold my sweet angel in my arms, smell her sweet newborn smell, let her little chubby fingers hold mine, and whisper into her ear, "we did it."