8 August: "Tickling" and TUMS and taking more blood. (Jen)

At our last visit to the midwives, they were still detecting low levels of protein in my urine, so they sent me in for more blood work on August 6th. I had my blood drawn last week, too -- to test my hemoglobin level. Last week it was at 120. This week, after taking iron supplements, mine is at 118. This is not something to worry about at this point. And my kidneys, etc. are totally fine. Yay!

I've been having pretty brutal heartburn all day long lately. I've found that if I eat, food seems to calm the burn... but sometimes I just don't feel like eating anymore (especially given that I now weigh more than 200 pounds!), so I take TUMS. Unfortunately, though, the label on the back of my bottle of TUMS says that pregnant women are supposed to take a max of 5 TUMS per day. Now that's a pretty big bummer, as I have to take them 2 at a time for them to tame the burn. And I can count on some burning burps a few minus after I go to bed, so I have to save 2 TUMS for bedtime. I have to say, though, that  am super-grateful that I can take them at all -- they work like a charm!  :)  Ice cream works, too, but not for very long, and I don't want to take 5 servings of that a day.

Sophia is now absolutely huge. I have no idea how I'll get her out of me -- that alone will be a large miracle. People keep asking me if I'm having twins. I hope that means that she's ripe and will come out sooner than later. When I was in the waiting room at the lab to have my blood taken again, another pregnant woman and I started talking about our shared "condition". She asked if I knew why people say that babies "tickle" the ribs of their mothers. Nope. I have no idea. There is NOTHING funny about the feeling of her jabbing my ribs, stretching out my rib cage, and leaving no room for my bra between the top of my belly and the bottoms of my breasts (which, by the way, look really small now, in comparison to my huge belly -- it's a strange thing). I have never felt tickled by her -- just poked. I do feel tickled, though, by how I walk lately -- swinging both arms and waddling.