Week 23 - My Pregnancy Adventure

My belly has definitely been growing lots over the last few weeks. Wow. I have now gained about 11 lbs, but will have my ‘official’ weigh in next week at my next appointment. At the rate I feel like I’m going, I think I will probably be gaining the recommended weight of 25-35 lbs no problem. A friend said to me early on, “you’ll be amazed at how big your belly will get”. I already am….and I still have 17 weeks to go! LOL

Well I didn’t think I would have anything too exciting to report this week, until Friday that is! Here is a recount of my adventure! For those who have heard this story already, feel free to skip this paragraph :) It all began when I was scheduled to go for my follow-up ultrasound, as they needed a few extra pictures of the hands and feet that were missed last time. Since it was going to be fairly quick, I dropped Nathan off to my parents where he was going to do some work, and I had about 5 minutes left before that “one-hour before” deadline for drinking my water. So I grabbed my 1L bottle and chugged it all down. So proud of myself. What I didn’t think about was the 500ml+ I had just had for breakfast with my smoothie.

I decide to leave a bit early instead of waiting around, and decided to get some errands done in town on my way. As I scoured for a parking space, BINGO there was a perfect one just outside from Pharmasave. From there, I could access all the spots I needed to go without too far to walk. The minute I pulled the car into the space, everything started moving around me. Not spinning, but just moving up and down. I turned the car off, and sat still to see if it would pass. After a few minutes, it wasn’t getting any better and it was nothing I had ever experienced. It didn’t feel like dizziness, but like I was drugged. I decided I should probably tell someone in case I passed out or something. I knew a friend who worked across the street, so got out of my car but then almost fell over. I couldn’t even stand up straight. It felt like I was really drunk, or on a really rough boat ride. I knew if I attempted to cross the street I probably wouldn’t make it without falling all over the place. I turned and saw Pharmasave and thought a Pharmacist might know what was happening.

I staggered across to the doors and went in knocking into the wall and just about falling on the floor with every step. The woman at the counter ran over to help me and I told her I was pregnant and something was happening to me but I had no idea what. She said there was an RN on site that day and ran to get her. They both ran over and sat me down, while taking my blood pressure, blood sugar etc. All looked ok. I felt nauseated from the motion sickness of it all and started gagging. So, over came a barf bucket and a plastic bag. What an attraction for the customers I was! She asked if someone could take me to the hospital and we called Nathan to come since he wasn’t too far away. In the meantime, she had me put my head between my legs and I just felt like I was on a rough boat ride…everything was moving back and forth, up and down. Nathan came and we headed to the hospital. By this time it had been about 30 minutes and it was still going strong. I guess I was now white as a ghost and we headed to the desk for the ultrasound. The poor technicians didn’t know what was happening. Out came a stretcher, wheelchair and then I started throwing up (yum!). They brought me up to pre-natal and admitted me where I stayed for most of the afternoon. The doctor came and tests came out well, it was very puzzling. It stayed strong for about 3 hours, where I couldn't walk or move without starting to fall over. Even my head was so heavy when I tried lifting it, it would just want to fall back down. After about 3 hours it seemed to start to go away. Basically I was suffering from 'vertigo' but they don't know what was causing it. The best guess was that perhaps it was water intoxication. When I got home, I did some searching and it sounds like that was probably the culprit. It’s quite uncommon, and usually requires LOTS of water to be consumed, but for me being pregnant where my organs are pushed, my levels are all over the place and my sodium levels are lower than normal, it may have been just enough to do the trick. It was only mild compared to cases where people drink tons of water, but the fact that I drank it so quickly could’ve sent my body out of whack.

Here’s an excerpt of what’s online:
“If water enters the body more quickly than it can be removed, body fluids are diluted and a potentially dangerous shift in electrolyte balance occurs. The body has too much water and not enough sodium. Sodium is an electrolyte. A decrease in sodium concentrations can cause an electrolyte imbalance. Over-hydration is disruptive to nerve cell function and can produce symptoms of vertigo.”

So that was quite a day! The good news is all seems well with Little Bean and he/she is still moving and kicking around lots!

I had my follow-up ultrasound again yesterday and saw the staff that helped me on Friday. They were happy to know I was feeling better. This time I made sure to drink my water over a much longer period of time. I brought my mom to this ultrasound so she could “meet” Little Bean. We tried to see if we could see the sex of the baby, but not much luck. We are pretty sure it’s a boy but will find out in a few more weeks!

The other exciting news was Little Bean received his/her first "official" gift of toys and books! :) All the way from the U.S.A.!! I had to pry them away from Nathan. hehe :)

That’s been the latest news on our end. Tonight we head to prenatal class, the last one for this month. I’ve been having trouble sleeping for the last week or so. I think I am used to sleeping on my back and now that I’m trying to sleep on my side more, I keep waking up. Either that or the baby is kicking. Hard to say. I bought a body pillow but it’s much bigger than my body, so seems to overtake me at night. LOL Hopefully tonight I’ll learn some strategies :)

All in all, I’m feeling really great and so thankful. I feel like I’m feeling better now that even before I was pregnant!