Whew! What a rough couple of weeks! It seems like there is no end to the things that must be done.

My last appointment (now two weeks ago), went great! She measured my uterus, which was the right size, and listened to the baby's heartbeat. It was 148, perfect. Next month my midwife says she'll let me take home a fetal heartbeat listening device so I can hear it on my own. She had mentioned before that I could get it at this last appointment, but I wasn't quite far enough along and that I'd have a hard time finding it. It took her awhile to find it and she's much more experienced at it.

She was pleased with my 3 pound weight gain. (I've been pleased that the entire month of June it's been staying between 3 and 4 pound gain. Last month I felt like I was on a roller coaster!) The only problem discovered was that the Ph level of my urine was much too high which can cause bladder/urinary tract infections. I did have one threaten before, so we were concerned about that.

Teresa suggested that I drink water with fresh lemon squeezed in it. This worked great! It was kinda bad tasting, but after a while I began to crave it.

But then, my allergies kicked in full force. Stuffy, runny nose, sneezing, wheezing... the whole nine yards. I called her up and she said to take Sudafed. I'd never taken it before and tried it out. It worked very well. I was surprised. It took away the bad stuff and gave me no side effects. The bad side was that I had to take it all the time. After taking the maximum dose in 24 hours (I had it in 13!), I decided enough.

Then it occured to me that the lemon juice/water was causing an acid stomach. For me that's not good. The acid creeps up from my stomach and ends up in my lungs. I thought that this was what was causing my allergy problems. So, last Thursday I quit drinking it. It has nearly completely gone away. I still wake up stuffy in the mornings and have occasional sneezing, but I had that before. As long as I'm not wheezing or coughing, I can handle it now.

Sunday night though, I started having bladder/urinary tract pain again. I was due to see my chiropracter yesterday and decided to ask him about it. He deals in overall health and sells herbs for a variety of problems. He gave me a cranberry supplement. I took all I was supposed to yesterday and I can already tell a difference. I'm gonna have to still call Teresa this week and let her know all that's been going on though.

The best thing lately? I've been feeling the baby move even more. Sometimes it's almost strong enough that I think James can feel it. I'm sure in the next 2-4 weeks he'll begin to feel it. I can't believe that I'm already past 20 weeks!!!!

Besides all that, I've had a lot going on at work. I'm under a lot of stress and I can't wait for this Summer Program to be over. I love doing it, but it is a lot of work. Yesterday morning we sold donuts to raise money for the program and raised almost $600! Quite a bit of that was just in donations! My boss will be pleased when I tell her today!

Well, I'd better go. I've got two hours of cleaning to do at the library for this week. TTFN!