motherhood is hard.

I’m still on antibiotics, which makes me feel queasy, especially when I also take the prenatal vitamin, then I really feel nauseous and cannot eat. I’m going to skip taking the prenatal vitamins for a couple more days while I’m still on antibiotics; I am taking a 7-day course of antibiotics.

I feel like my stomach is growing bigger by the day. For some reason in the evenings is when I feel the biggest, and then I feel like my skin cannot possibly stretch as quickly as my stomach is growing. I walk around like a clumsy walrus. Or maybe a very obese penguin. Instead of taking steps forward like I used to, I seem to take little diagonal steps, and wade from side to side.

I can no longer put my socks and shoes on the same way I used to, by lifting my legs up or by bending over. Now I have to sit down, turn my leg side ways, and then put my socks and shoes on side ways.

I have trouble getting up from the sofa unless my husband gives me a hand, and I’m only 6 months pregnant! You don’t even want to know how I “flip” from one side to the other when I sleep. I have to flip from side to side a few times at night because all the weight on one side of my hip gives me hip pain. I literally feel like a beached whale trying to flip itself. Or a huge leatherback turtle who is on its back and it is trying to flip itself upright but cannot. If I keep writing I may come up with more flattering animal analogies to describe my current physical state!

I can’t imagine what my mobility will be like when I’m 9 months pregnant… maybe non-existent.

I’m still taking nitrofurantoin-macro (generic equivalent for Macrobid) twice daily at 100mg each dose. It makes me feel a bit queasy / nauseous, which is not helped by the prenatal vitamin I’ve also started to take. I read that right now baby J’s brain is developing rapidly, and I wanted to take the prenatal vitamin to make sure he gets whatever nutrients he needs.

I’m not on bed rest now, but I don’t feel quite myself yet, or at least the more energetic self I was a week ago. Last night I went to prenatal yoga and couldn’t finish the class because I felt a bit dizzy and nauseous. Prenatal yoga is quite a gentle class, so I knew it was my body that was weak from the (urinary tract) infection or the medication – maybe both. I feel bummed because I was doing so well and feeling energetic.

I try to drink the recommended 2.5 liters of water per day for pregnant women, but I find that 2.5 liters is A LOT of water to drink. I didn’t cultivate a good habit of drinking a ton of water to begin with, so I’m finding that having to drink this much water is very difficult. Aside from going to the bathroom every 15 minutes (already from the infection itself), drinking water makes me feel bloated and overly full, now that my stomach capacity is decreasing due to the uterus pushing up as baby J grows.

What makes me feel a bit cheerful is that this early morning when I was snoozing, baby J was moving about. I patted my tummy and felt baby J respond with more squirming. Even though he may not know what’s going on and may be just reacting to stimulus, I felt happy when I felt him bump against my hand.