C'est La Vie

Nearing the finish line over here.  It's pretty crazy.  This has been the easiest and hardest pregnancy yet.  It's been totally unlike the other three.  I thought I knew what to expect based on past experience, but boy was I wrong!  In the past, I was sick, sick, sick until about 20 weeks, at which point I'd start to suffer from backaches.  The lower back hurt when I'd get up from sitting, the upper back would often start to hurt while laying down.  The latter was weird because it wasn't so much painful - it was like if you could feel "nails on a chalkboard" as a sensation in your muscles.  I'd be twitching and almost pulling my hair out with the awkward feeling.  With Brennan I felt no braxton hicks contractions, with Asher I started to feel some near the end, but they didn't hurt.  With Hollyn I started to feel them earlier and more distinguishable, but they were just mildly uncomfortable until I was in full labor.

But this time... man!  I was still sick in the beginning, but I was given prescription nausea medication.  I wouldn't say it was a miracle drug, and I know I still felt sick... but honestly I can hardly remember it.now.  I still vividly remember the horrible morning sickness with the first three, but almost forget that I even experienced it this time.  It seemed more like a non-deal.  When that subsided though I was prepared for the backaches, although I picked up as soon as I could on the gym attendance.  Possibly because of that I've experienced almost no backaches.  I've had maybe 1 or 2 experiences of the "chalkboard upper back"  episodes.  In it's place though, I've suffered pretty much everything else.  I started feeling painful contractions pretty much around 20 weeks or so.  They were infrequent at first, but now I feel pain frequently, all day.  I also started having horrible hip and groin pain while sleeping.  It seemed rediculous, but one morning after a terrible, no-sleep, excruciatingly painful, night, I googled "hip pain while sleeping."  Apparently I am FAR from alone there.  A small percentage of women seemed to get *some* relief by buying a special mattress pad, sleeping with a maternity pillow, and a couple other suggestions.  I tried my sister's pillow and it didn't really seem to help me much.  The result of all this pain all night though led me to start skipping the gym in the mornings.  And guess what?  The hip pain totally disappeared within about a week or two of stopping.  Plus things as home (schedule-wise) had also settled down after about 2 months of crazy-busyness!  Once I started taking things a little easier, the pain was gone.  At least that specific pain.  Let that be a lesson to you... exercise is BAD! ;-)

Anyway, that didn't help me feel like this pregnancy was easier.  At this point, my day is still pretty much about pain endurance though.  Contractions start if I walk across the street.  I feel horribly sore in the groin like I pulled a muscle - and it's been months!  My goal at the start of this pregnancy was to appreciate as much as I could every little thing as my last time experiencing it.  I wanted to make this my "complaint-free pregnancy."  In the end, I think I've complained WAY more this time than all the other times - possibly combined.  It has not been easy to deal with 3 busy children during all of this.  Especially Hollyn.  Her entire day consists of whining and crying for direct attention, or making a huge mess if I turn my back for even a second.  She moves any and all furniture to get into stuff on the counter, in the cupboards, etc.  She tries to escape outside frequently, unless you need to go somewhere then she'll make a huge fight about getting into her carseat. *sigh*.  Anyway, I'll be SO glad for this all to be over.  I've always been pretty o.k. feeling by the end of the pregnancy in the past, but this time I'm miserable.  I'm so tired of hurting. So. very. tired. 

Oh yeah, and all this pain makes me remember labor pain a little too well.  I used to brush it off easily, but that was because I wasn't actually feeling any.  Now that I feel labor-like pain so much, it's a reminder of what's really coming.  So I'm really, really scared.  I'm starting to dream about labor whenever I sleep.  It's not fun.  I wish I could just get the epidural right now and just hang out watching soaps until the little guy pops out.  Too bad it doesn't work that way.