It has been a medically interesting month for the Ly-Pang household. I’m even considering a medical recap post for the blog. My little medical drama began Thursday evening when I got an innocent little hankering for a snack. I decided on a croissant stuffed with a slice of warm ham, which wasn’t a wise or a healthy choice, but I was desperate and sleepy. Soon after, I could feel the heartburn set in, then nausea. I accounted both to the ham croissant. It was a terrible night as I hardly got a wink of sleep. At 6 in the morning, I got out of bed and tried, in vain, to pass my time by doing a little bit of work at the computer. Clearly, this wasn’t all that effective in my comatose and sleep deprived state. I decided that poking at Kevin was a much better solution. Really, I was attempting to rouse him from his sleeping beauty slumber. After all, misery loves company and I was truly miserable at that point. I spent an hour doing this, but with no luck and finally at 8 AM he woke up on his own.

One thing I hadn't mentioned previously regarding my lack of sleep that night was that his tossing and turning was half the reason. As he vacated the bed, I immediately jumped back in, hoping I’d now be able to get a few hours of blissful slumber. I did in fact sleep from 9 till 1 in the afternoon. Upon waking, the nausea was still with me. I began to feel achy all over. I started to suspect that last night had to do with more than just a croissant. As the afternoon wore on, I got achier and achier. Fortunately, I didn’t notice the pain to most of my body. Unfortunately, this was due to the fact that my shoulders and the back of my neck was now throbbing with pain. To give you an idea of how excruciating this pain was, let me give you an idea of how high my pain tolerance normally is. I don’t make a peep when I fall, I think bikini waxes aren’t notably painful and 2nd trimester leg cramps? I hardly wake up for them. I just stretch my leg and go right back to sleep. Friday afternoon, however, was a completely different kind of pain. It hurt like a leg cramp, but throbbed with achiness. Around 5 PM, I couldn’t deny that I was feeling warm, not scorching, but warm. I decided to take my temperature and found that I was running 100.5 Not too bad, but definitely not what you’d want while pregnant. I called the physician on call and was advised to take acetaminophen, and get plenty of fluids. I was also told that if the temperature got any higher, or the nausea turned to vomiting, I should report to labor and delivery and have lab work done. I was not a happy camper and I was too delirious to drive out and buy Tylenol. I decided that Kevin would be home soon enough and I would just try to nap until then. Little did I know that my short nap would last until 10 PM. I finally woke up because the achiness and the pain was really begin to throb with intensity and the sides of my jaw were now aching as well. I’m still not entirely sure if that had to do with the illness, or if I had been grinding my teeth while asleep and had triggered my TMJ. I took my temperature again and was now thankfully down to 100. Kevin decided to go get me Tylenol, just in case, and popsicles to try and up my fluid intake. At this point, I hadn’t eaten more than a pineapple ring since the croissant from the evening prior. I could barely even get sips of water down. The popsicles proved to be A-MAZING.

Kevin and I stayed up till midnight just trying to burn through time. He periodically massaged my shoulders and neck to relieve some of the pain. Honestly, no amount of massaging was going to get rid of the pain, but I just needed it bearable. Between midnight and 5 AM, I slept for 20-30 minutes at a time. I woke up each time the pain became severe enough to wake me up on its own. I would try to drink some water each time I woke up. Kevin was a complete dear and massaged me back to sleep every time I woke up. He also got me heat packs and cold packs in an attempt to assuage some of the pain. FINALLY, around 5 AM, I fell asleep for good. Kevin waited up until 6 AM just to make sure I was finally going to remain asleep. At 9 AM, I woke up and for the first time in 36 hours, I was hungry. Nay, I was STARVING. The fever had finally broken and I was astonishingly normal again! Never had I been as happy to be normal as I was Saturday morning. It took me 48 hours to fully recover, but I’m happy as a clam now. After all that drama and illness, I still don’t know what I had (other than the OB’s diagnosis that it was a virus).

On a happier note, Sophie is still kicking and well inside my tummy as you can see below:

Checking in with Parenting.com, we find that Baby Sophie is about 12 inches long and weighs a little over a pound. She has developed her sweet little face and her wee little ears. Apparently she can no longer do cartwheels and tumbles so we won’t be seeing her switch sides anymore. She is now more attuned to sounds outside the womb. If a loud noise disturbs her, she may be restless for hours. Apparently, it is possible to catch the sound of her heartbeat by putting your ear up to my stomach. Kevin decided to test this out today. He couldn’t catch her heartbeat, but while his ear was against my stomach, Sophie kicked him. :-)

And since we still don't have a cute fruit analogy picture from TheBump, we'll leave you with yet another creepy little photo from Parenting.com. This one is apparently supposed to show the baby's strengthening bone structure:

Yesterday, I had my monthly check-up with my OB in Newport Beach. I was informed that my next monthly check-up will be my last. From then on, I will be going in for visits bi-weekly. In the last month of pregnancy, I will be going weekly. This really is a relief for me, I’m always nervous until I hear her little heartbeat on the Doppler. Her little heartbeat is currently at 150 bpm. We went over my last ultrasound, which was generally good. My blood pressure is currently excellent and as for weight, I’m weighing in at 117. I go by the actual weight on the scale, but the doctor’s office always subtracts two pounds for clothing and shoes. We’re also excited to be scheduling another ultrasound to take place in two months. Kevin didn’t attend the last one, since it was only two weeks after our second ultrasound, but he’s excited to attend Sophie’s fourth. She’s going to be so big and cramped by then!