Beauty of 3rd Trimester - Part 1, Month 7

from www.alexakitchen.com/comics

What all happened during the 3rd trimester:: I am writing it in bullet points cos so many things happened that I sometimes don't remember the sequence. But one thing for certain, my 3rd trimester was more troublesome, longer and more wonderfilled than the rest of the pregnancy (this is including all the nausea and puking in 1st trimester).

• The first hurdle in 3rd trimester: swelling ankles and BP going erratic. I unfortunately have to go through pregnancy in the peak of summer. So I made sure to drink lot of water, so much so that my feet started swelling because of excess water. I didnt realise that was the reason for my swelling. When I went in for my check up (first time I happened to have an afternoon appointment for that month, otherwise I usually have first thing in the morning), my BP had shot up to 135/88. I went in to utter panic mode. I had been checking my weight and BP carefully whole through the week and it had been normal, but was suddenly wacky in doctor's office. My doc just looked at me and said, dont worry, must be the heat. Also cut down on the water. You are drinking too much and that's causing swelling, drink only if u r thirsty. Just to be safe, monitor  your BP for next one week at different times. If it is constantly showing high reading call me. I went home and did just that and found my readings back to normal by nightfall and continued to stay that way for rest of the week.
• Gestational diabetes Test: A milestone test, if turned positive or even borderline you are stuck with no more sugar and repeated diabetic test. I was dreading this one, cos' my sis who was pregnant last year had ended up borderline and was forced to forgo sweets and yet my niece showed high sugar levels on the day of her birth. Of course it receded and came down to normal levels by the time she left the hospital but until then it was tense, stressful and painful watching a newborn getting pricked every hour for blood test. I desperately wanted my sugar levels to be under control. I thankfully had not had any craving for sweets or salt or spice during my pregnancy. except for rare instances of craving for idly, I have had a reasonable pregnancy so far. Well, fasting after dinner the previous night, I almost fainted by the time my turn came up in the testing center and all I was handed was a bottle of sugar drink and told to drink it and come back after an hour. To make long story short, I cleared my test with flying colors.
• Rashes, rashes everywhere: I spoke too soon about my pregnancy going easy on me. I didn't realize that I was about enter most testing week of my pregnancy. Rashes!!. Since my hubby was having meetings late in to the night and he was keeping me awake with his continuous talking I decided to sleep on sofa for 3 days which was critical period in work for him. Our sofa sits right under window, and since even the nights were hot I decided to keep the windows wide open and sleep. 3 days later I had the worst possible rashes on my thighs and arms. The rashes started out as redness and within matter of hours had turned in to itchy, swollen, small boils all over my thighs and arms.... In panic I called my doctor and he told me there was not much he could do about it cos I was in 7th month pregnancy. He asked me to apply anti-itch cream and wait it out. With no cure in sight, I went to urgent care and was told the same thing. The doctor in urgent care asked me try the anti-itch for 3 days... if not resolved I should come back and there were steroids that he could prescribe but he gave me disclaimer that the steroids were not tested on pregnant humans and so they have no idea what the effect will be. I decided to leave it be and bear through the pain. The anti-itch cream turned out to be the worst possible idea. Next I ended up with worsened swelling and pain deep in my bone. In desperation to temporarily (atleast) soothe itch and pain, I applied sandalwood paste on the rashes and breathed a sigh of relief for the first time in 3 days. I started doubting that I might have PUPP... and scared that I was going to struggle till delivery with this pain. I started applying sandalwood paste (to soothe) and vibuthi (to stop itching.. very effective) and sitting continuously in a/c, eating melons to cool my body... i was also having raw turmeric powder and neem powder mixed together in empty stomach in an effort to get rid of any kind of insect bite poison and such... after a week and half of struggle, the rashes finally subsided but major part of the next month was still filled with itching. It took lot of self control and patient application of vibuthi and sandalwood paste to get rid of the itching.

Thus ended my eventful 7th month.