Not like a camel's hump

I'm in the home stretch and it's easy to tell. I've had a couple of instances of what I think is the weirdest pregnancy symptom, (apart from having a human being move, roll and grow in your belly). I call it having poorly attached stilts as legs. Sometimes when I've been in a position for a while, like on the floor, laying down or sitting and I try to get up, my legs won't work at first. I can feel my hips all weird and have to make sure I get my footing before plodding on. I guess this has helped me identify with our elderly neighbors and with some ladies I've met with multiple sclorosis. Well, at least mine is a passing phase!

I made a pretty big mistake yesterday and felt the consequences into the night. At first I wasn't sure what was wrong. Brian was feeling sick too, so I thought the fish we'd had may not have been good. I felt queasy and hot, had heartburn and was a little thirsty. I couldn't sleep, so I got in the recliner, which was WAY more comfortable than the bed (again, I can see what Mr. Griffin means). After a little while though, I felt short contractions, like what I had the day before I had Ivan. I thought, this is way too soon for this, although I have friends dilated a month in advance and have been having normal Braxton Hicks contractions, this was different. They were only seconds each and lasted only about 30 min. I contemplated going to the hospital, but it was 3 in the morning, did I really want to get Brian and Ivan up and spend the rest of the night in the hospital with them? Definitely not, plus I had an appointment today, so I could ask my doctor about it.

Looking back, I deduced that I was dehydrated, which can cause contractions. It's hot here, I'd drunk a Dr. Pepper in the day which I don't usually do, not enough water and had fried fish and spanish rice (both salty) for supper. Then with the heartburn, I hadn't drunk much. Dr Mascoro checked me and said everything was fine. I'm not at all dilated and everything was where it should be. In fact, when she went to listen to our daughter's heartbeat, it was racing. The Dr. said that was a good sign and she'd wait for it to calm down. Apparently little missy new someone was disturbing her cosy little home and got riled up about it.

I've been subbing a lot for other water aerobic classes (and declining a bunch- enough is enough), but the Dr. didn't seem distressed about that. She agreed I had probably gotten a little dehydrated. So, all is well. I'll be going every 2 weeks now as I'm in the last trimester (all ready????- that's what I said!). So the lesson of this story is... drink lots of water and don't mistake the hump in front for a camel's storage tank, it's more like a thirsty SUV that keeps needing refills!