The Nose of Pregnancy

So, my sense of smell has kicked up in high gear, and I'm not sure it is a good thing. Here are a couple instances.

This week I went to the gym and went on the elliptical machines. Two machines down from me was a very overweight man. I'm glad he was at the gym, but he was wearing a long sleeve sweatshirt AND long sweatpants. May I remind you that these last few weeks in Kansas City have been horrible. They have been in the 90's and 100's all the time and it has been miserable. I'm not sure why that man was wearing this outfit, maybe he was modest or maybe he wanted the extra weight loss from sweating (not really a good idea anyway). Still, it caused a problem for me. As soon as I started going on my elliptical machine I smelled him, and it was not good. Not good at all. If I would have had an appetite, I would have lost it. Since I had already started exercising, I felt I had 2 choices: one, get off my machine and change to a different one further away from him , and 2, keep on going. Let me say that I am very happy that this overweight man has come to the gym and is obviously pushing himself hard. This might be the beginning of a great thing for him. If he were to notice that I was moving away from him, that could make him feel bad and even more self conscious. I don't want to do that to him. As a doctor, I also know that your nose habituates to the situation, so I felt that even though things were bad now, maybe I could get used to it.

In the end I chose the second option. After a couple minutes I didn't notice the smell, but every 5 minutes or so the smell would waft my way again and make me rethink my decision. I stuck on that elliptical machine for the full 30 minutes and to my knowledge, that guy never knew it was a problem.

That's probably the most painful smelling consequence of my pregnancy, but there are more. One night I was having dinner at my in-laws house. Aaron was drinking a glass of red wine next to me and that smell, mmmm. That smell was so enticing and perfect and........ I couldn't have it. The whole dinner that glass of red wine was mocking me. I think I might have to bring in some wine to the hospital with me, so as soon as that baby is out....

All and all, I think this heightened sense of smell is not a good thing. I am ready for my normal nose to come back. Although, I must tell everyone that the Tom's of Maine Lavender deodorant is divine.

It was not alone.

A couple days ago I put in four loads of laundry. Yes, I know that is a lot, but I was backed up and my wonderful sister-in-law Jenny gave me a ton of maternity clothes (thanks again Jenny!). I finished the laundry and brought it all upstairs and put it away. That in itself was a feat, but that is not why I am writing this.

Yesterday I went down to wash some quilts and when I looked next to the washing machine there was a dead mouse right next to it. I did a little yelp and promptly went back upstairs (ignoring the washing I was planning on doing). Luckily, my big burly man of a husband took control of the situation. Henry wanted to go down so he got to take a peak of the dead mouse. Surprisingly, he did fine with it. He wasn't grossed out at all. I guess this is a good thing.

Ok, are you ready for the bad part?

Aaron said that the mouse looked like it had been stepped on.

Ugh!

Four loads of laundry, up and down, up and down. You think I would have heard a crack or a squeal, right? I mean, it had to be me. I even know what shoes I was wearing (good think I always wear shoes into the basement).

Ugh.

And that's not all. Henry told me they found another one, just laying there dead in another place. What? Are we breeding mice? So, for now, I'm quarantining myself out of the basement while we get our little problems fixed (um, I haven't necessarily told Aaron about this yet).

4 years, no mice and now this.

Ugh.

Fit and Pregnant, an oxymoron?

Before becoming pregnant, I was fairly in shape. I was running up to 7 miles at a time, I was lifting weights regularly and I was on a basketball team. I lost weight, but never got to a "normal" BMI (although my body fat was normal). I still had a ways to go, but I was doing great and had come a long way.

Then I got pregnant.

Me, being the doctor, I of course looked up as many research articles and information I could about exercise and pregnancy. The information is pretty scarce. I think that is true for a lot of pregnancy issues. No one wants to be be in a randomised trial that MAY cause fetal damage. It's unethical. So, most of the research is either built on case reports or people reflecting back of their pregnancy.

The ACOG, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, used to have a heart rate limit for pregnancy (specifically 150). Recently, the ACOG changed their recommendation to "moderate" exercise "most days." This is more vague, but gives a little leeway. Because I have a heart rate monitor, I know I often go above that 150 bpm level and feel pretty comfortable at high heart rate levels. When I am not pregnant, I have no problem pushing my body, but now I don't want to. When I was about 5 weeks pregnant I went for my last run. It was a slow run that seemed ridiculously easy, but again, I didn't want to risk it. I played basketball until 7 weeks and I just went by symptoms. I never felt out of breath or that I was pushing my body, so I kept playing.

Also, when I found out I was pregnant, I was working with a trainer weekly. I thought it would be a good idea to continue this, to at least keep be as strong as possible. That did not go as well as I wanted. Every week when I worked with my trainer, I was able to do less and less. I was more exhausted quickly and my strength was decreasing rapidly. This was true with all exercising, but much more apparant with weights. My trainer knew I was pregnant and was working me through it, but he always had me do things at my previous level and then fail at them. Every week I would come home more frustrated than the last. I couldn't do everything I wanted. I felt like a failure, even though it was out of my control. I started hating to go to the gym to do the weight lifting routine because it was so hard. I wasn't doing much cardio because anytime I went to the gym I had to lift weights. It was frustrating to me, so I made a decision. I stopped training. No more push ups, pull-ups and bicep curls.

So now what am I doing? I'm still trying to get to the gym as often as possible, but it is nothing as regular as before pregnancy. I still walk to work most days (except when it is during a heat wave). For a while I was only doing only the elliptical machines at the gym and that was getting a little boring, so now I'm spicing things up with a little swimming. So far so good. I like the thought of doing cardio over weight lifting because I want to keep my heart in shape. Hopefully that will make it easier to get back to my previous level after the baby.

Only time will tell on that one.

Mouse

Two nights ago I was getting ready for bed and I saw Aaron looking in the kitchen with a different look on his face. I asked him what was going on and he said he saw a mouse. Ummmm, What?

When we lived in Iowa City close to downtown we had mice. We didn't notice for a long time, but looking back we heard scratching sounds in the the walls and our candy drawer and little mouse droppings around it (I know, we really should have figured it out). Writing that now grosses me out as I can totally picture that dirty drawer. Anyway, we set traps and then we kept catching mice over and over. I'm not sure, but maybe 5-6 in total and then it just stopped. I didn't quite like this, but it was tolerable, and think it was because we were just living in a rental.

Now, we OWN our house and it it completely OUR problem. Two nights ago I pictured little mice scattering around the house eating weird things and leaving little droppings all around the house. I promptly picked up all the clothes off our bedroom floor (which was a lot) and then tried to fall asleep. Being pregnant and worried about mice isn't quite the best recipe for a restful sleep.

The next day I told my mom about the mouse (she is staying with us for a week which has been great). Neither Aaron or my mom were phased about the mouse. Am I being dramatic? Anyway, that day Aaron bought some traps and that night our little friend was found dead trying to eat some free peanut butter.

I was upstairs the whole time so I don't have any pictures, but I wouldn't have taken them anyway. I'm glad to think this problem is over, but I am also worried that we caught the mouse a little too quickly. Like, a little too quickly for only one mouse to be in the house. Aaron placed another trap and so far no mice.

We'll have to see. Even though I am extremely grateful for our house not to be infested, I am a little sad for the mouse.

RIP little mouse.

16 Weeks

So, I know. I haven't written in a long long time (really since May??). There has been a reason. Before, I didn't want to write on this blog what has been occupying my mind, but now I guess it's alright. You can tell my the name of the post that I'm having another baby. I always want to be practical and want to wait and tell people until I know everything good and fine and nothing bad will happen. I guess I can never guarantee this, but so far, so good.

It's funny because these last few months I have been looking for blogs about pregnancy and staying in shape and really I could have just written one myself. So, I guess I should recap how I'm doing.

The first few weeks after finding out I was doing great. I was exercising my normal amount and I even played basketball up until 7-8 weeks pregnant (by the way, my team took 4th place out of 8 total teams). At about 6 weeks I started feeling nauseous. At first it hit me pretty hard, harder than I ever remember with Henry. It was like my body was working on new rules and no one told me these rules. For instance, I had to eat something in the morning right away whether I felt like it or not (usually I didn't), I couldn't ever drink something and eat something at the same time. I needed to eat something every few hours whether I felt like it or not (again usually not). Lastly, my body hated the prenatal vitamins. I ended up taking them at night and then feeling sick but then going to sleep. There was some bad times during this. I remember one day coming home from work at lunch and just feeling miserable. I was force feeding myself some fruit and I could barely eat a hand full and I was done. I trudged back to work feeling even worse. After I understood the rules, things got a little better. I should also say that throughout this, I never puked, so I guess I should feel fortunate or something (right?).

After about a month things calmed down. I was able to drink and eat at the same time and mornings weren't so bad. I still took the vitamins at night and they still made me sick, but otherwise things were okay. Today, I'm almost normal. There are a few times I feel sick if I don't eat something soon enough in the morning and it occurs randomly at night, but this is improving.

The interesting thing is I don't ever remember it being that bad with Henry. Maybe because I was so excited with Henry and so busy with Medical School that I failed to notice the sickening feeling in my stomach, but I highly doubt it. I do remember carrying string cheese in my pocket for when I didn't feel right, but usually that helped and I was off doing what I was supposed to (mainly following residents).

I don't quite know why this is, but it probably is a good sign that this little baby is healthy inside of me. I can accept that now that things are letting up, but it wasn't fun.

Well that's enough for now. Next post I'll maybe talk about Henry some (he's had a busy summer) or how I'm trying to stay in shape with this pregnancy.

Until later