24 Weeks & SPD?

24 Weeks!

It's official... I can no longer see my feet... and sometimes Gunner...

So I have finally reached 24 weeks, and I am feeling pretty blessed that *we* have made it this far. Piper now has a 50/50 chance of surviving if something terrible were to happen and I went into Labor. So I feel grateful to still be cooking my little chicken. :)

So I was thinking today about something I often have been thinking about. I have been envisioning the day that we actually get to meet our little one. When I am first handed my little girl, and I get to see her little eyes, and mouth and nose and hands and feet, and HER! When I get to introduce myself as her mommy, and Dave as her daddy, and give her the very first kiss she'll ever receive, and just holding her for the first time. It makes me a little emotional because we will get to go through so many firsts together and I can't wait!! I already love her so much that I can't imagine how much more I'm going to love this little girl when she actually arrives.

I've been feeling her a lot more lately, and sometimes she punches and kicks hard enough that I can feel her on the outside, but I can never predict when that'll happen. Poor Dave wants so bad to feel her kicking me. I want him to feel her too, I keep trying to describe what it feels like to have her moving inside me so he can imagine it, but I don't think it helps any... it probably makes him want to feel her more... lol

So I have been having these horrible pains lately *down there* and FINALLY I have a name for it (and now I know I'm not going crazy...) It's called Symphysis Pubic Dysfunction or SPD. Which is (as they describe) one of those weird pregnancy conditions that sounds bizarre and definitely is. It means the ligaments that normally keep your pelvic bone aligned during pregnancy become too relaxed and stretch. This, in turn, can make the pelvic joint - AKA the symphysis pubis - unstable, causing some pretty strange sensations, and sometimes pain. The culprit behind SPD is the aptly named hormone relaxin. It's mission is to make your ligaments stretchy so the baby can ease her way into the world. But sometimes relaxin does its job too well, making the ligaments around your pelvic bone during pregnancy too loose too soon (way before baby is ready to come out), and that causes instability (and unfortunately, pain) in the pelvic joint.

So now I get to wear a pregnancy belt that isn't too comfortable to wear while I'm sitting down. (which I tried to upload a picture of what I'm talking about but it won't put the picture in this paragraph... oh well) But basically what it does is it lifts the belly up off the pelvic area (or at least helps hold it up off so there isn't so much pressure there) So there isn't so much pain down there.

So lately I have been talking to some friends of mine and there are at least 2 girls (who are very special to me in different ways) who are pregnant and are due around the same time and I couldn't be happier for them!! I can't wait to hear what they are having (if they choose to tell me, or if they choose to find out and share - some people like the element of surprise and want to be team green) I can't wait to hear about when they first feel their babies, and all the milestones they will have. It's such an amazing gift and I wish all my friends and family could have this feeling!!