Friday!

I kind of thought Friday might never come this week!  But it has!  Oh, thank you horrendously stressful and busy week, for FINALLY ENDING! 

 

I've been thinking about bed rest lately.  Longing for, is more like it.  I plan to work up until I have this baby unless circumstances dictate otherwise, but recently I've decided that if circumstances did dictate otherwise (as early as, say, now) I'd be totally fine with that.  My ankles and feet have started swelling.  A lot.  Like, hello major kankles.  Last night I drank plenty of fluid, rested with my feet up before dinner, went for a walk and then finally slept with my feet up in the hopes that I would once again be able see my ankle bones this morning.  Success!  But short lived success - they are starting to bulge again and it's not even noon.  It's the numbing, painful kind of swelling that leaves you aching for the day to end.  And, on some days, tearful when it won't come fast enough.

 

I have to say I've probably gotten off easy up till now.  I mean, okay, the first trimester (or at least the first trimester pre-Zofran) was hands down the most miserable physical experience of my life.  But post-Zofran, I've had a decent pregnancy.  I don't like carrying around extra weight, and I'm exhausted.  My back hurts.  My clothes don't fit (obviously) and getting dressed for work is a struggle.  But other than that, I'm not limited by being pregnant.  I can still do most of what I want to do.  Maybe I can't bend over quite as easily anymore, but even that, if push came to shove, I could manage. 

 

But I think I'm nearing that stage now, starting the 33rd week, where I'm uncomfortable.  And it's mostly the kankles that are doing me in.  That and the back pain.  So if my doctor told me that she'd prefer I no longer haul my large belly into the office and instead stay at home with my feet propped up, I'd take her up on the offer even though the loose ends aren't yet neatly tied up here at work.  I had my meeting with HR yesterday about leave paperwork, so I'm ready to go whenever I get the signal from my doctor or my uterus. 

 

Sadly, my OB just had a baby about five months ago.  She worked up until she delivered and then she was back in the office again 4 weeks later.  I'm not sensing that she's a sympathetic soul in this department, or that she has a loose wrist when it comes to signing off on disability paperwork.  So... how swollen do your kankles have to get before you have a legitimate case?  I'm guessing that unless they're accompanied by high blood pressure, I'm SOL...