My First Pregnancy: Week 28

Well, this week was not much fun either. I did my blood work at the end of 27th week. I did 3 hours glucose test and then total blood work. I am not really big fan of soda drinks, so orange soda they gave me to drink for glucose test had huge amount of sugar. Of course, the night before I had to fast for at least 8 hours in order for glucose test to work.  The only thing I was allowed to drink was water during night if I had to, nothing else. My glucose came back fine but my haemoglobin and ferutin (iron in blood) came back low. I am not sure how this is possible when I eat really healthy. I was prescribed  “Palafer CF prenatal supplement with Iron and Folic Acid with Vitamin C” which is used for the prevention and treatment of iron and folic acid deficiencies. I would like to stress out that I’ve been taking prenatal Vitamins “Materna” whole this time. I started taking Materna few months before I got pregnant and I’ve been taking it ever since. Therefore, I am not sure how my iron test came back low.  These iron capsules are to be taken 1 a day, in the morning with breakfast, so they wouldn’t upset my stomach. One of the side effects of taking iron supplement is constipation. I haven’t had this problem so far, so I hope I will not get it now either, but then again I’ve just started taking these tablets.  I would like to stress out that I confirmed with pharmacist that it is ok to continue using Materna (that has 1 mg of folic acid already) along with this Palafer CF prenatal supplement that has 0.5 mg of folic acid. As per my pharmacist, taking 1.5 mg of folic acid a day is not a problem. 

Another problem that I got in 28th week of my pregnancy was pain in my left upper labia. For a few days I’ve been walking with a pain in this area, hoping it will go away. I don’t like to call my OBGYN for something that should last shortly anyway. However, I’ve been researching the Internet and found this problem to be quite common in pregnant women, particularly occurring around 30th week.  This problem is usually referred to varicose veins, or stretched ligaments. Then it occurred to me to use a mirror and see if everything was ok in this area.  I couldn’t really tell much, but then I was able to feel something inside my left groin, size of a ping-pong ball. I couldn’t really feel it when I was lying down or sitting, but while standing it was quite easy to feel it.  I even had my husband to double check to confirm I was not imagining things. That night I took it easy and slept on my right hand side with pillow between my legs, so I wouldn’t press against left side and painful area. In the morning, my swollen groin was less swollen. I went to see doctor and she was only able to detect it while I was standing. She said that it looks to her like it is some small hernia that is quite common in pregnant women. They will not be able to do anything for me while I am pregnant, especially not surgery, so she suggested only to relax and have my legs elevated as much as I can. I took her advice and started resting more, which helped to ease my pain. I must say that my pain is stronger when I change my position, or when I get up from my chair or bed; this is when I feel pain the most. Hopefully it will stop soon as I don’t want to end up on a bed rest (which was one of my doctor’s suggestions too). 

Anyway, I still have this pain, but it’s a little bit less. I started walking in my running shoes instead of dress shoes, and my feet are very thankful for it. While I work I have my legs elevated (they gave me some box and foot stool on a top) and that helps too. 

I hope that it is not hernia, as doctor can’t really tell for sure. However, she said that although it is quite common for pregnant women to develop hernia during pregnancy (due to extra weight that is pushing down), it is also very common for hernia to disappear on its own once baby is born. Therefore, I should take it easy and rest as much as I can, so I wouldn’t cause more trouble to my baby and me.