I had my 24-week check up today. I saw the Nurse Practitioner, Paula Lins, which was great. She is the one I met with on my very first visit and I like her a lot. I feel like I have not really had a chance to ask my doctor a lot of questions throughout this process. He does the ultrasounds, but not many of the routine check-ups, so I have really only seen him twice and each time he just gets right down to business and then leaves the room as soon as he is finished with the sonogram. So, since I knew I was seeing the nurse practitioner today, I brought a list of questions with me. One of my main concerns that I wanted to talk about was weight gain. I haven't been weighing myself at home (I didn't weigh myself before I got pregnant either - too depressing - instead I usually go by how I feel and how my clothes fit), but I do get weighed at every appointment. I can pretty much read the scale, but I still think it is odd that they never actually tell me what I weigh, they just write it in the chart and take me back to the room. (I'm sure if I had asked what my weight was on any of these occasions they would have told me, but I think I was really afraid of what the number would be.) When I asked where I was at with weight gain, Paula looked at my chart and said that I had already gained 30 pounds, which put me on schedule to gain about 60 pounds for the entire pregnancy. I just about fell off the exam table. I was shocked! I knew I had put on a fair amount of weight, but I had no idea it was 30 pounds, and the fact that I could gain 60 pounds made me want to cry right there. We had a long discussion about the things I should be eating (lots of salads, fruits, vegetables and lean meats) and should not be eating (carbohydrates such as pasta and potatoes and stuff with lots of sugar). None of this was a surprise to me and I have been eating tons of fruit, salads, chicken and pork. But, I have also been eating a fair amount of pasta and potatoes - which I thought was being healthy. Unfortunately, I think my body is very sensitive to carbs and they just stick to me. I think this was the case even before I was pregnant. I have also always struggled with portion control and a major sweet tooth. And being pregnant has not helped any of this. I am hungry all the time and I crave something sweet every night after dinner. Pair all that with the fact that I have not really had a regular exercise regimen since I stopped playing college sports and I guess I shouldn't really be that surprised that I have gained so much weight. I left the doctor's office feeling very depressed. Deep down I know that the important thing is that the baby is healthy, but I guess I am still too vain and selfish to be ok with gaining 30 pounds when I am only halfway through my pregnancy.
When I told Tony about my appointment I completely broke down in tears. Poor guy, I think it scared him that I was crying about my appointment and for a minute he thought something was wrong with the baby. I quickly assured him that everything is fine with the baby and I was just overreacting. He was so wonderful and said that he would do whatever he could to help me adjust my diet to eliminate some of the extra carbs - and he said that he would cut back with me so we can still eat the same meals. He also said he would go on more walks with me and help me get into more of an exercise routine. That made me feel so much better.
Other than that, everything went fine at the appointment. The baby is measuring pretty much right on schedule and his heart rate was between 150 and 160. My only other concern was that I have not felt much movement at all. My sister-in-law, Stephanie, says she feels her baby moving all the time, so I wanted to make sure that everything was ok. Paula told me that it is ok that I haven't felt much movement up to this point. She said that the amount and strength of the movements I will feel depends on the baby's position and she also said that sometimes women with strong abdominal muscles don't feel a lot of movement until later on in pregnancy. After the whole weight discussion, it was nice to think that I might still have some ab muscles in there someplace :-) My next appointment will be at 28 weeks and I will do the glucose screening test and get a RhoGAM shot because of my Rh negative blood type.
5 comments:
oh, goodness, it is an emotional mess, this pregnancy thing. The good thing is that with or without 30 lbs. you are one of the most beautiful people I know and it sounds like you have a pretty patient husband who doesn't say things like "I don't get what the big deal is"! I had to have a RhoGAM shot as well. It was a little traumatic for me: Picture me standing there in "position" with the nurse and her intern discussing how to pinch the skin and how far to stick the needle in...word to the wise: no interns.
Oh Raj that is the one thing I have hated through all of my pregnancies. I also have the body type to gain weight very easily and while I am pregnant I don't want salads, I like my carbs, healthy or not. So... Like Chris always just tells me, You are pregnant, it is okay, try your best but don't beat yourself up over it. Like you said the baby is healthy and the weight will eventually come off. We are not lukcy like some of those people who barely look like they are pregnant, which is why we are all different. I gained 40 lbs with Crew and 55 lbs with Brody... and who knows with this one, but I know a lot of people after about 34 weeks the weight gain slows down a lot. Keep your head up!! You are BEAUTIFUL!!!
Hi Randi , I understand what you are going through I was always so paranoid with weight gain during both my pregnancies but I think walking really helped keep the weight down even if it's for just 30 minutes a day. The bottom line is that you have a healthy baby and you can worry about the rest after the baby is born ( and believe me you will not even think about the weight once the baby is here you will be so in love with him it will all be worth it!!) also my weight gain always slowed WAY down after 34 weeks so don't stress too much! Looking forward to seeing you at the end of the month. Love ya!
This is going to make you sick, so stay tuned for the positive reinforcement. I have a friend who is pregnant with her first baby, a BOY like you! She has a condition called negative weight gain! It's where the baby gains weight at a healthy rate and experiences no complications, but the mother actually LOSES weight! Sounds really annoying, right? Now, before you go wishing you had this condition, you should know that (although baby IS healthy) it's very painful for Brittney, she has flu-like symptoms throughout the entire pregnancy and is on a VERY restricted diet. So you see? You feel good, baby feels good, and you can ENJOY your pregnancy and the foods you love. And best of all, you get to do this with a loving and helpful husband. So enjoy the experience together! We will be praying for you! Love you!
P.S. My word verification for this comment is "biticho"! What did you call me, punk!?
Hey Randi, I haven't seen your blog in a while. Now I have you on my following list so I can keep updated more often.
Anyhow, I just wanted to send you some encouragement. I hear ya about the whole weight gain thing. I know it's easy to say this and harder to feel it, but really try to embrace this time. It's really the only time in your life you can gain a bunch of weight and you really don't have to feel bad about it at all. In fact, no matter how much or little you gain, you'll always be glowing. Even if you don't feel that way. I read a good book when I was pregnant that talked about weight gain and it said that women should gain much more than what is typical these days. Anyway, the important thing is that it said the more weight you gain early on in pregnancy (as long as you're eating somewhat healthy) the bigger the baby(ies) will be. For me, that was really important and my twins were big for how early they were born. I think I gained 40-50 pounds in the 28 weeks I was prego. Just imagine if I had made it to term... I'd have probably gained over 100 lbs!! You're right, though, go by how you feel and not the number. I heard that we crave what our body needs. I ate a TON of carbs when I was prego, which is not something I typically crave (other than sweets, I always crave dessert!). Anyway, I'm going off on a bunch of tangents, but just know that you are an amazing beautiful woman and all the people who know and love you feel the same way. In looking at pics of you, you look fabulous! Embrace this time, when it's over you'll look back and feel like it had just began. Love you, Randi! XO, Gita
Post a Comment