When Your Head is Out of Sorts with Pregnancy Anemia Brain

My head is seriously out of sorts with pregnancy anemia lately.

The Week of Fuzzy Brain

I have often heard people say that pregnancy is more difficult on the body as you get older, but I never experienced it until lately. Joshua was my overall hardest pregnancy, to include excessive vomiting in the first trimester as well as shockingly bad sciatica pain in the third trimester. Yet, that was my youngest pregnancy! I was doing so great until the Spring Break from the Arctic! That’s when “the wave” started and then what we’ll refer to as the great sugar and anemia crash of 2013…..this weekend. I’m still not put back together yet, ya’ll. My ankles are still swollen when I wake up in the morning, I have had a headache for about 24 hours, and if I eat the least bit of sugary food I start to seriously crash. My house is ……kind of gross (especially the floors and the potty training bathrooms), and I VOW to have that fixed by the end of the week, even if I have to clean them sitting down! Oh! And the grass turned green this week (in spite of the still freezing temps), so I’m thinking the headache could be allergy related. I am SO allergic to grass. Yesterday Caleb and I were leaving his swim lessons, and my head got so swimmy and confused feeling, I just had to take us straight home, neglecting the other errands I was supposed to be running. Okay, so I’ve painted the picture for you, right? I’m kind of at a low point. Please excuse any odd behavior from me this month! But don’t worry. All will be okay. Here’s why: I went to the commissary today. I did my research on the internet and bought all pregnant diabetic friendly snacks and foods. ALSO, I made it through the entire trip without having any weird “waves.” While at the commissary (love that place), I also bought Zyrtec–hoping that will nix the headache. Don’t worry. It’s already on my list of meds in my records, so I know I’m allowed to take it. I’ve started praying a lot about my conditions, since God can do more than I can. I’ve been taking iron supplement, prenatal vitamin (which I had neglected in the past), folic acid supplement, and a vitamin C supplement. According to what I’ve read, it could take a week for my body to use that iron to build up enough hemoglobin to get me feeling better again. The baby is fine. He just took ALL my iron, and that’s why I don’t have any. The baby has turned to the head-down position. : ) I know b/c he has hiccups now, making me quite certain of the exact location of his head and upper body. I may not even HAVE gestational diabetes, per say. However, I definitely seem to be negatively impacted by sugary foods, so I’m improving my diet anyway. Well, I’m trying to do so. I’ve failed miserably so far, but the disappearance of Easter treats should definitely help! Oh, and Mom, don’t worry about Iron side effects. I needed it so badly, I have had no side effects, and my fingernails are even starting to turn pink again. (Anemia pales your skin out, very noticeable in the fingernails). Lastly, I didn’t realize that I had almost taken beef completely out of our diet. We rarely do pot roasts or steaks, and I had replaced ground beef with ground turkey. I have changed all that now. We have returned to ground beef, bought a pot roast, I’ve been eating beef about once a day the last few days! For good, CORRECT information on anemia, here’s a link that I found helpful: http://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/ask-heidi/anemia.aspx ************ THE REST OF US** The rest of our family is doing well. Alan has seemed so much less stressed to me the last couple of days, which has been a great relief. I know some of you were really praying for him, and we super appreciate it. Alan’s amazing. He’s not the kind that stresses because he has a paper due tomorrow because he turns all of his assignments in days in advance. The one he’s working on now is due April 15. You know what’s really great about that? His anti-procrastination also makes me feel less stressed. Tonight is Alan and Joshua’s first baseball practice–actually it’s a batting practice. Joshua is in a “machine pitch” league this year. I think Joshua will enjoy it once he adjusts, right now he just feels intimidated by it. He still says that baseball is his sport, even though he never wants to practice…. What Joshua likes to do is jump on the trampoline and DRAW……and draw and draw and draw. Both sets of grandparents bought Joshua and Caleb drawing notebooks this Christmas, and we were all so thankful. Joshua has pretty much drawn so much in all four notebooks, I’m not sure if there’s any paper left. I’m constantly finding my finance notebook and my to-do list notebook covered in Mario and Bowser (Mario’s arch enemy) drawings. Caleb is still doing well in school. That kid is a really quick learner! We’ve also been relieved that he has not been a behavior problem. Going into it we weren’t quite sure how Caleb would do with school, but he really just loves it. Caleb told Alan this week, “I wike to build stuff. I’m going to be a builder when I grow up!” That makes me smile b/c I remember how as a toddler he was always taking everything apart, and now he’s so good at putting things together. Even train tracks. He was a whiz at putting together those GeoTrax train tracks by the time he was 2 1/2.

The Week of Fuzzy Brain

I have often heard people say that pregnancy is more difficult on the body as you get older, but I never experienced it until lately. Joshua was my overall hardest pregnancy, to include excessive vomiting in the first trimester as well as shockingly bad sciatica pain in the third trimester. Yet, that was my youngest pregnancy!

I was doing so great until the Spring Break from the Arctic! That’s when “the wave” started and then what we’ll refer to as the great sugar and anemia crash of 2013…..this weekend.

I’m still not put back together yet, ya’ll. My ankles are still swollen when I wake up in the morning, I have had a headache for about 24 hours, and if I eat the least bit of sugary food I start to seriously crash.

My house is ……kind of gross (especially the floors and the potty training bathrooms), and I VOW to have that fixed by the end of the week, even if I have to clean them sitting down!

Oh! And the grass turned green this week (in spite of the still freezing temps), so I’m thinking the headache could be allergy related. I am SO allergic to grass.

Yesterday Caleb and I were leaving his swim lessons, and my head got so swimmy and confused feeling, I just had to take us straight home, neglecting the other errands I was supposed to be running.

Okay, so I’ve painted the picture for you, right? I’m kind of at a low point. Please excuse any odd behavior from me this month!

But don’t worry. All will be okay. Here’s why:

I went to the commissary today. I did my research on the internet and bought all pregnant diabetic friendly snacks and foods. ALSO, I made it through the entire trip without having any weird “waves.”
While at the commissary (love that place), I also bought Zyrtec–hoping that will nix the headache. Don’t worry. It’s already on my list of meds in my records, so I know I’m allowed to take it.
I’ve started praying a lot about my conditions, since God can do more than I can.
I’ve been taking iron supplement, prenatal vitamin (which I had neglected in the past), folic acid supplement, and a vitamin C supplement. According to what I’ve read, it could take a week for my body to use that iron to build up enough hemoglobin to get me feeling better again.
The baby is fine. He just took ALL my iron, and that’s why I don’t have any.
The baby has turned to the head-down position. : ) I know b/c he has hiccups now, making me quite certain of the exact location of his head and upper body.
I may not even HAVE gestational diabetes, per say. However, I definitely seem to be negatively impacted by sugary foods, so I’m improving my diet anyway. Well, I’m trying to do so. I’ve failed miserably so far, but the disappearance of Easter treats should definitely help!
Oh, and Mom, don’t worry about Iron side effects. I needed it so badly, I have had no side effects, and my fingernails are even starting to turn pink again. (Anemia pales your skin out, very noticeable in the fingernails).
Lastly, I didn’t realize that I had almost taken beef completely out of our diet. We rarely do pot roasts or steaks, and I had replaced ground beef with ground turkey. I have changed all that now. We have returned to ground beef, bought a pot roast, I’ve been eating beef about once a day the last few days!

For good, CORRECT information on anemia, here’s a link that I found helpful:

http://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/ask-heidi/anemia.aspx

**************

THE REST OF US

The rest of our family is doing well. Alan has seemed so much less stressed to me the last couple of days, which has been a great relief. I know some of you were really praying for him, and we super appreciate it. Alan’s amazing. He’s not the kind that stresses because he has a paper due tomorrow because he turns all of his assignments in days in advance. The one he’s working on now is due April 15. You know what’s really great about that? His anti-procrastination also makes me feel less stressed.

Tonight is Alan and Joshua’s first baseball practice–actually it’s a batting practice. Joshua is in a “machine pitch” league this year. I think Joshua will enjoy it once he adjusts, right now he just feels intimidated by it. He still says that baseball is his sport, even though he never wants to practice….

What Joshua likes to do is jump on the trampoline and DRAW……and draw and draw and draw. Both sets of grandparents bought Joshua and Caleb drawing notebooks this Christmas, and we were all so thankful. Joshua has pretty much drawn so much in all four notebooks, I’m not sure if there’s any paper left. I’m constantly finding my finance notebook and my to-do list notebook covered in Mario and Bowser (Mario’s arch enemy) drawings.

Caleb is still doing well in school. That kid is a really quick learner! We’ve also been relieved that he has not been a behavior problem. Going into it we weren’t quite sure how Caleb would do with school, but he really just loves it.

Caleb told Alan this week, “I wike to build stuff. I’m going to be a builder when I grow up!” That makes me smile b/c I remember how as a toddler he was always taking everything apart, and now he’s so good at putting things together. Even train tracks. He was a whiz at putting together those GeoTrax train tracks by the time he was 2 1/2.

aprilmomoffour

April is an upbeat, Christian, blog-obsessed, military wife, and home schooling mom of four little boys. She writes about education, travel, and humorous adventures in parenting. Follow along if you’d like a little bit of encouragement and a whole lot of crazy.

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Anonymous says:

2013-04-02 at 5:23 pm

We will be praying for you, specifically that you will feel better soon. You are right, God can do so much more than we can. Love, Daddy-O & Nonna