return of the bump- week 30

 Hello 30s! The countdown is on. 

This week was a bit more of a struggle than some previous weeks have been. I guess it was technically during week 29, but I felt tremendous pressure in my belly one night that wouldn't go away. It kind of freaked me out. My belly was rock hard, bloated, and cramping all at the same time. It was very uncomfortable, and I imagined that Doglet felt like he was in a pressure chamber and that it might be harming him. 

When I looked down, I noticed that there was a small line on my belly that was kind of red, and I thought I was getting my first stretch mark (wasn't too excited about that). I couldn't believe that there was so much pressure in my stomach that it induced a stretch mark on the spot. However, it wasn't there the next day so I think it may have just been a popped blood vessel or something, still very crazy.

This kind of feeling is not totally abnormal in pregnancy, so I didn't get too bent out of shape about it besides feeling discomfort. There are a few things that could have caused this sensation- Braxton Hicks contractions (false, pre-labor contractions to prep your body for the real deal), your belly growing and ligament pain. I would also add another category called "eating Chick Fil A earlier in the day". I hadn't eaten fast food in months and just felt like having an unhealthy day, so I grabbed a Spicy Deluxe and some waffle fries. When all this was happening, I definitely thought it might be because of the Chick Fil A, but I couldn't believe that I went to Chick Fil A one time and it gave me a stretch mark a few hours later, what severe punishment. Regardless, moratorium on Chick Fil A now. 

I also started getting some pain in my glute this week, that seemed to be made worse by my prenatal exercise class. So I cancelled my next month of classes to try to go easy on it. At least for this month, I'm going to focus on swimming for aerobic exercise and maybe starting up some prenatal yoga. I have another prenatal session starting in January that I already paid for so I guess I'll just hope things are back on track again by then. My favorite exercise move from that class are the speed skaters, which is a lateral movement where you hop from side to side, get low, and cross your leg behind your standing leg. I still feel pretty fluid on so it makes me feel good and nimble. However the motion crossing my leg behind my back was definitely not feeling right. It's weird- all the referred pain from my back issue has always been on my left side, I've never had pain on my right side. But when you go from sitting to standing and feel a shot of excruciating pain going into you, you know you're doing something wrong. Ima figure it out.