I have now delivered a precious little baby six times. You would think: “Six times! She’s got it down!” Nope. It’s never easy. In fact, it seems almost worse because I had five other times to remember how hard it was…and next time, Lord willing, I will have six memories 🙂
At about 30 weeks pregnant I started swelling. That was a new “pregnancy symptom” for me. Honestly, when women used to talk about swelling in pregnancy I didn’t think it sounded like a big deal. It does now. Mine was so bad my feet started to crack and I felt like my calves were going to burst open! Miserable. The only solution was to lay around (which I hate) and elevate my feet. On the days that I wouldn’t do this my swelling was like a bajillion times worse.
A couple weeks after the swelling started my blood pressure began increasing and so of course the scary word: preeclampsia started to be tossed around. The annoying thing was that this increased my anxiety which increased my blood pressure. It also increased at bedtime. Parents know what I am talking about! One night after a frustrating bedtime adventure my blood pressure was 154/100! I eventually handed bedtime every night off to my husband and took an epsom salt bath while he dealt with our dehydrated philosophers that needed a hug.