Update on my mom, and an awesome birthday!

My mom's doing ok. They weren't ever able to pinpoint the cause of her pain, but they did find an ovarian cyst that may be the culprit. She's going to follow up with her OB/GYN on Monday and see if the cyst is hitting a nerve or something like that. They gave her some anti-nausea medicine and a prescription for the pain, in case it comes back. I'm going to see her tonight; she's my date for a wedding, haha. So thankful that my mom is ok, because I don't know how I'd handle it if she wasn't.

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday, and it was definitely one of the better that I've had. I went to the chiro in the morning, which was the only part of the day that I wasn't totally happy with. It turns out that they haven't been charging us as much as they should've for the copay. It was supposed to be $35; they've only been charging $20. So we suddenly have a bill for $15 from each visit I've had so far. Obviously, we'll pay it, but I find it totally obnoxious that we're having to pay it at all when it was their mistake. Oh well. I don't feel like the adjustments are doing any good anymore, so I think I'm going to stop going.

After the chiro, my wonderful husband sent me off to get a pedicure. Ahh, the bliss. Why do I not get these more often? It was especially wonderful since it's extremely hard for me to get to my toenails to paint them on my own, and the nail tech was just awesome. The color I picked was an OPI color called "Monsooner or later". I can't stay away from the bright coral-y colors!

For dinner, we went to Logan's. It was a slightly more disappointing experience. When my food got to the table, the sirloin and rice were cold, and it was the tiniest serving of rice I've ever seen. I asked our waiter if they could just reheat the stuff on the plate; it tasted fine, so I wasn't trying to get new food, just hotter food. He took it back to the kitchen for me and then the manager came out to apologize for the issue. They ended up only charging us like, $12 for our entire meal, which was awesome!

The only downside to this birthday was that it's the first time in my life that I didn't get cards in the mail. Not a single card. I feel so silly for caring about that, because I'm a grown woman and it's a trivial thing, but it made me a little sad. I did get cards in person from my mom and MIL, but for some reason it was just different to not get anything in my mailbox.

Here's my 27-week bump picture. Pardon my looks in this one...I had spent an hour or so crying over my mom and my mirror is dirty.

I'll stop procrastinating. Tomorrow.

No, but seriously, I will. Mostly because I have no other choice. We're leaving Saturday for a week in Florida, which means that I HAVE to pack on Friday. I've been piddling around, doing loads of laundry here and there and sort of making sure the things I'll need are clean, but I haven't been as proactive as I should be. (But then again, I never am.) DH asked me to make a list today: the things we need to take to FL, and the things we need to buy to take with us. I hate list making, because I invariably leave something important off the list. My goal is to make it to FL with all the stuff I need, without having to take three or four suitcases. That's going to be quite the challenge for me, because I'm quite the habitual over-packer.

I've been continuing to go to the chiropractor for my sacrum issues. Oddly, I feel like things are sort of stalling out. For a while, it seemed to be getting better, and now it seems to be holding steady. I'm not a fan of this...the chiro is expensive, and if I'm paying that much, I want to see some improvement! I'm wondering if maybe Baby Boy is just growing so quickly at this point that the adjustments can't keep pace with all the ligaments and bones being pushed on. According to my "sources" (hah) Wee Laddie has grown an inch and a half since last week. That's mind blowing to me. But I think I believe it, because I'm starting to feel kicks and jabs much further over on my sides than ever before. I still love feeling him move; it's the best part of every day.

The Glasgow Highland Games were, in a word, awesometastical. I learned a little more about my Scottish heritage. Apparently, my clan (Clan Morrison) is NOT a sept clan, but an actual clan. (Sept clans are basically those who pledged fealty to a larger clan, and are subsequently considered branches of that main clan. Like, my mom's clan, Harper, falls under Buchanan.) I also met a guy who is from Clan Morrison (had the tartan kilt and all!) and it was really cool talking to him. I told DH that he needs to wear a kilt to the games next year, and for some strange reason, he seemed like he wasn't the biggest fan of that idea. ;) The bagpipes were amazing, the clothing was really cool (lots of men in kilts...some of them quite handsome) and let me tell you, haggis is not at all disgusting. It has a pretty distinctive liver taste, so if you really hate liver you wouldn't like it, but I actually enjoyed it a lot. Scotch eggs were also delicious (boiled egg wrapped in sausage and baked). I think I could survive in Scotland eating the local food!

Quick bump update before I drag myself off to go get some housework done. We've reached 25 weeks, and if Wee Laddie was born at this point, he'd have a 50% chance of survival, which is amazing to me! I've dropped a couple pounds somehow, probably from being a lot more active the last few days than I normally am. (Let's be real...I sit on my butt at home and play on the computer a lot. I am not the most active gal.) So that puts me at 139lbs, which means I'm up about 12lbs. Not bad for being more than halfway done! Still no stretchmarks, but I'm still waiting for them to show up. I got stretchmarks during puberty; there's no way I'm going to escape pregnancy without them. But I'll keep lotioning my belly religiously and praying that I get lucky, anyhow.

Here's a picture from last night at 25 weeks on the nose.


What are your weekend plans? Anyone have something fun or exciting going on?

My butt hurts.

Or, more specifically, my sacroiliac joint hurts. On the left side.

I started having a weird pain when I was about 10 weeks pregnant. It'd only show up when I was leaning over and lifting something. And it hurt, but not badly. It was almost the sensation of needing to pop a joint, but it was in a place that I couldn't pop.

Flash forward to now. I'm 22 weeks pregnant, and the pain has gotten DRASTICALLY worse. It's happening daily, and at weird random times. When I take a step, when I sit down, when I get in bed, when I do absolutely nothing at all to exacerbate it. After DH witnessing me gasping in pain and clutching the counter while waiting for the stabbing sensation to end, he suggested that I look into a visit to the chiropractor.

Here are the things that I learned today:

1. I love the chiropractor.

2. My sacrum is crooked and deviates to the left, which is what's causing the pain. It's hitting a nerve occasionally and causing the crazy pain.(Incidentally, my mom has the same thing, but on the right. It started when she was pregnant with me and has never quite gone away.)

3. That doctor popped places that I didn't know could be popped, and it was incredible. All of my vertebrae were sighing with joy.

4 TENS units are awesome. Never had electrotherapy before but he put a little shock pad on my butt and had me sit with it for a while. I honestly loved the sensation...tingly and kind of weird but made my muscles feel so relaxed.

Hopefully, my butt issues will be resolved with a few more adjustment sessions. I'm going back again tomorrow, and I'm already kind of looking forward to it. Hopefully it won't end up costing us an arm and a leg...our insurance is a little flaky about what kind of chiropractic care they'll pay for. But thankfully my SIL works for this office and might be able to work out a deal for us. The doctor wants me back three times a week for two weeks, and he seemed fairly confident that it should at least drastically alleviate the pain, if not totally get rid of it. I'm still feeling some of the pain at the moment, but it's not reaching the extreme that it normally does, so at least it's dulled.

Also, fun side note: my midwife told me that blood pressure can be really low during 2nd trimester because of the weird way your body works. Mine today? 99/60. I have NEVER had a reading that low...normally it's around 127/80 or so. I feel like a freak of nature...I have MORE blood than normal, but way lower blood pressure? Weird.