No, I don't mean she is a pain in the back figuratively. I mean it in the literal sense. I have been in nearly constant pain since I woke up Saturday. I thought things were getting better yesterday, but then I overexerted myself (read: I folded some clothes while reclined on the couch with my feet up), the pain got worse and has not gotten better since then. Every time I move now I either get cramps or low back pain. I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon, so I will find out the verdict then. Thankfully, tomorrow I will be 36 weeks, and while that is still a little bit pre-term, one of the doctors at the hospital said that at that point I can start doing cartwheels if I so desire. I might not do cartwheels, but I will probably try to organize the nursery better, clean out the refrigerator, and cook some food that we can freeze and then reheat over the next several weeks.
The only other change has been on the scale. I was down 18 pounds when I came home from the hospital. I am now down less than 9 (in less than 2 weeks). And no, I did not overindulge on Tofurkey Day - Gwen's position and size prohibit eating too much. However, my wedding ring no longer fits (I can manage to shove it on my finger, but if I keep it on for longer than 2 minutes it is almost impossible to remove), my shoes are tight, and my lean body mass percent has risen 1% since I got home from the hospital. That last point may seem puzzling if you don't know how body fat/lean body mass percent works on home scales. The scale creates a circuit from one foot to another. In order to create the circuit, however, it has to travel through all your fat, muscle, bones and blood. Muscle contains lots of fluid, while fat contains little. Therefore, fat has a higher resistance than muscle (electrical signals travel well through fluids because of all of your little ions that are floating around). If you are dehydrated and you step on the scale, your body fat percent will read too high, and your lean body mass will read too low. If, however, you are retaining water in your legs, the muscle percent will read too high. This is how I have "gained" 1% muscle mass in the past 1.5 weeks despite being on bed rest. And because I'm not out of my teaching mode quite yet I will offer one more snippet of information about body fat percent measurements. If you use the scale, it only measures body fat in the lower part of your body (the circuit goes from one foot, through your leg, through your hips, down the other leg, into your other foot). If you use a handheld body fat meter the circuit goes from one hand, through your arm, chest, other arm and into your second hand. Therefore, if your fat is not evenly distributed in the top and bottom halves of your body, you are likely to get a high or low reading. Also, I would question the accuracy of any percentage a home scale offers - I use mine not to monitor actual percentage, but to follow trends. I can tell if my body fat percent is climbing or falling, but I don't believe it is providing my true body fat percentage (it is precise, not accurate). If you want a better test of body fat percent that does the top AND bottom halves of your body, you do something called bioelectrical impedance in which you have one electrode on your left ankle and the other on your right arm. But you still run into problems with dehydration.
The only other change has been on the scale. I was down 18 pounds when I came home from the hospital. I am now down less than 9 (in less than 2 weeks). And no, I did not overindulge on Tofurkey Day - Gwen's position and size prohibit eating too much. However, my wedding ring no longer fits (I can manage to shove it on my finger, but if I keep it on for longer than 2 minutes it is almost impossible to remove), my shoes are tight, and my lean body mass percent has risen 1% since I got home from the hospital. That last point may seem puzzling if you don't know how body fat/lean body mass percent works on home scales. The scale creates a circuit from one foot to another. In order to create the circuit, however, it has to travel through all your fat, muscle, bones and blood. Muscle contains lots of fluid, while fat contains little. Therefore, fat has a higher resistance than muscle (electrical signals travel well through fluids because of all of your little ions that are floating around). If you are dehydrated and you step on the scale, your body fat percent will read too high, and your lean body mass will read too low. If, however, you are retaining water in your legs, the muscle percent will read too high. This is how I have "gained" 1% muscle mass in the past 1.5 weeks despite being on bed rest. And because I'm not out of my teaching mode quite yet I will offer one more snippet of information about body fat percent measurements. If you use the scale, it only measures body fat in the lower part of your body (the circuit goes from one foot, through your leg, through your hips, down the other leg, into your other foot). If you use a handheld body fat meter the circuit goes from one hand, through your arm, chest, other arm and into your second hand. Therefore, if your fat is not evenly distributed in the top and bottom halves of your body, you are likely to get a high or low reading. Also, I would question the accuracy of any percentage a home scale offers - I use mine not to monitor actual percentage, but to follow trends. I can tell if my body fat percent is climbing or falling, but I don't believe it is providing my true body fat percentage (it is precise, not accurate). If you want a better test of body fat percent that does the top AND bottom halves of your body, you do something called bioelectrical impedance in which you have one electrode on your left ankle and the other on your right arm. But you still run into problems with dehydration.
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