Weeks 31 & 32: Varicose Veins & No Gestational Diabetes!

The very next evening after I wrote my last post, as I walked past my bathroom mirror, I caught a glimpse of something interesting.  What in the world was wrong with my right leg?  Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the back of it was covered with veins.  Some small and spidery, some larger and kind of creepy looking.  To my memory, I hadn't done anything to create physical trauma so I was very confused - it was just one leg!  Where did this come from?  I quickly snapped a picture and contacted my midwife to ask her about it.  Fortunately she's awesome and quick with reassurance.  She told me from the picture that it looked like varicose veins but if more worrisome symptoms came with it, to come in because of the possibility of blot clots.  I went in a day or two later just to make sure but yes, the back of one of my legs is covered in both ugly varicose and spider veins.  They are mostly from my knee up but they are still unsightly.  I've always been excited to make it through 4 full term pregnancies with no stretch marks and now I have these ugly things to look at.  Boo.  Welcome body image issues.  I'm glad they are nothing to really be worried about but that doesn't make it any more fun for sure.

In better news, after 3 weeks of monitoring my glucose levels, my midwife gave me permission to stop.  She said my numbers looked good and were not of concern.  She did encourage me to watch the sugars, just as a general encouragement, which I know I need to anyway.

My weight gain is at 24lbs.  Blood pressure and all that jazz has been good.  I'm still measuring on target and Abigail is head down (yay!).  All in all, minus the vein issue, things are looking good.

With that said, I'm still achey.  My back is hurting a chunk of the day.  Fortunately, I'm still sleeping fairly well minus the middle of the night potty breaks or children that get up for one reason or another.  My legs still have that tired/fatigued feeling they started having about 8 weeks or so ago.  The Braxton-Hicks are still pretty regular, increasing with my increase in activity of course.

I've gotten many of my "to-dos" accomplished in the last week or two though.  That's been awesome. I feel I'm in an early nesting phase or something.  I've been trying to knock out this list of things before the baby comes.  I don't want to mess with it afterwards.  We're getting ready to start our fourth week of homeschooling already and that makes the days go by so much faster.  I really feel like seven weeks will be here in no time!

Until next time...

Take care,

Terra