A Darling Adventure: On pregnant people and my love of sushi

Now, I know that people have started to stop by this blog in the hopes of a hint as to how Hannah is doing. No worries, she and baby are fine, but he still hasn't made his appearance yet (and yes, today is her due date). At the moment she's still living her normal, active (although increasingly uncomfortable) life, and we're all just waiting. It's sort of like sitting around watching a bomb, waiting for it to go off. We'll let you know as soon as the Big Event has taken place and list the stats and everything right here.

By the way, congratulations to Beka, who just gave birth to her 4th baby -- finally a little girl! (Beka, I would link to your blog here, but I can't seem to figure out where your blog is.)

Now since there's nothing more to say about Hannah and the little guy we have yet to meet, I'm going to talk about me. =)

With each pregnancy, I've struggled with a good deal of back pain. This is largely because of scoliosis, but also the shear size of my babies in comparison to my small frame adds to it (although most people would say that a 9.5 baby is large for any size woman).

In the last few weeks before Andrew was born, I had trouble walking, driving, and sitting for periods longer than 10 minutes at a time; I was constantly going to lie down.

When I was pregnant with Elijah, I had just recently been in a car accident before I conceived, so our insurance paid for regular chiropractic care almost up to my due date. It made a huge difference in the constant back pain (which went from almost unbearable to just minimal and definitely manageable). I also saw an increase in energy, probably because of better circulation due to regular adjustments.

With Lavella I had no care at all, and once again the pain was back full force.

All of this to say, I finally decided to go and get a pre-natal massage this past Wednesday. I felt strange about dropping so much cash to have someone spend an hour rubbing my back, but let me tell you, it was incredible. I felt rested and relaxed and cared for. I think I'm going to have to pay a few visits to both the chiropractor and massage therapist while I'm home this summer; I'm already having trouble walking when I'm tired (it's like something in my low back just gives out, and makes it painful for me to lift one of my legs). When I get back to Germany I'm going to have to look into what options the Army has available for me -- I know that they do physical therapy of sorts, and maybe my German midwife can work something out.

Anyway, now that you've heard all about my back pain (which was probably just as fascinating as watching the paint dry), let me just say that the place where I went to get the pre-natal massage, Traditions At The Glen, is completely worth going to. It was a lovely, soothing experience from the moment I walked in the door, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a few hours to unwind and pamper yourself. It's a fluffy towel/white robe kind of a place, and the staff is exceptional.

After my massage and a good long steam shower, I stopped at Wegmans for some sushi (my selection was fully cooked -- no worries).