Week 27

It's been a pretty uneventful week, which - when you're expecting to have a finished bathroom over a month after your "minor" project is started - is not necessarily a positive thing!  The nursery remains on-deck as I attempt to pin my dear contractor down to a date but with this horrendous weather, he's scrambling to rearrange his schedule.

I realize he isn't Prospero and can't quell storms at will but this is getting ridiculous.  I call it The Bathroom Reno: A Farce in Three Acts.  Once I finally get him on the phone and we work it out, I suggest he hire me to be his PR person/scheduler to avoid alienating current and potential clients when he gets overwhelmed.  Heck, I could make calls for him from bed rest and even through my 5 month maternity leave from Drexel.  It's not the getting behind that bugs me as much as the radio silence in a pinch and general lack of communication skills.  Shocking, as he's from Belfast and can talk your ear off when he's standing in front of you...

I have the word of my Irishman that he will absolutely connect the plumbing and finish the bathroom by this time next week.    

Other educational moments this week:

• I've learned that PB does not enjoy riding in cars for long stretches of time and therefore, neither do I.  In fact, I would rather walk five miles in this humidity than subject myself to another trip over 90 min long.  Not kidding.  There are only so many positions a 7-months-pregnant woman can contort herself into safely and not attract stares from passersby.  If I had filmed the trip home from Pittsburgh, I probably could have used it as an audition tape for Cirque du Soleil. 

• Oh, yep - that stabbing pain that feels like someone has cranked open a speculum inside my vagina is, in fact, dear little PB kicking down under.  Sometimes I think she gets her feet wedged so deep in my cervix that it's a struggle for her to get out and I have to help her on her way to a new position.  I can typically move her with yoga positions, massage, or just general pressure.  If I find her head and gently press on it, she gets the message to move it.  I feel a little guilty that she is probably not enjoying being wedged in such a tight spot but there's really nothing either of us can do.  She's what is called "footling breech" and unless this pesky placenta moves, she's going to stay that way. 

Here's a handy visual.

 

Oh, hey, Mama!  I'm just trying to get into half lotus pose.

• Speaking of placentas, I'm trying not to obsess about mine.  We have over a week until our 29 week ultrasound and official diagnosis but I'm trying to educate myself as much as I can so I know what questions to ask when I'm there.  Today I came across this NYT article about placentas and unlocking medical mysteries through research.  It was a humbling read.  It's a shame that more emphasis isn't given to the role of the placenta in medical books or pregnancy literature.  Just like a blastocyst beating incredible odds to implant, the trophoblasts also have a huge role to play in early pregnancy and can sometimes be solely responsible for the viability of an embryo.  *There's a helpful little diagram of what a "normal" pregnancy looks like regarding the position of the fetus and the placenta.  Not my reality but there's always room for variation in nature, I suppose.

• We're in the toddler-sized portions of food every 2-3 hours stage of the third trimester.  My almost two pound baby has compressed my stomach (hey, free gastric bypass?) so there's not much real estate to fill.  Not complaining.  I think I did all my eating between 20-25 weeks so I got a good month of gorging in there.