My, oh my, how things have changed in one week!  I went from having an annoying “pain in the butt” to feeling like an achy old lady in the course of a few days!  Beginning Sunday evening, or maybe it was Monday, I started losing range of motion in my right hip.  Every time I would stand up OR get started with walking from a standing position, I would get a sharp catch in my butt/lower back that would take me from a 0 on the pain scale to a 7 instantly.  OUCH!!

I finally broke down on Wednesday and scheduled an appointment with my chiropractor.  The call was made Wednesday, and I got in on Friday morning.  I thought the day would NEVER get there!  Luckily, she was able to tape me up using ROCKTAPE, which is currently acting on behalf of my saggy abdominal and lower back muscles.

It is helping to stabilize my pelvis since my own muscles are a bit too weak to do a good job.  Through my research in the type of pain I was having, I knew what I was actually experiencing was sacroiliac joint dysfunction.  Well, I’m still experiencing it, but it is SO MUCH BETTER now than it was.  Within 10 hours of being taped up and receiving a chiropractic adjustment, I had my range of motion back!  I could stand up and start walking without wincing in pain – YES!!!

I still have a little bit of lingering pain, but the advice she gave to help manage SI Joint pain during pregnancy included: icing the area for 15 minutes every 2 or so hours can help with the inflammation, keeping legs together when turning in bed, doing pelvic tilts and squats, sitting on the big birth ball all the time, and popping my butt out when squatting to sit and not moving around after that.  She also said that if the taping helped, she would definitely recommend that I get an SI Belt to help provide constant support before, and after, delivery.  My chiropractor said this belt would be more useful to me than a regular maternity belt, because it would help everything stay in place now and put it back into place after the baby is born so that I can walk comfortably and return back to normal.

I’m starting to get a bit of swelling.  I don’t know if it’s the summer heat or the fluctuation in weather, but wearing my rings is starting to get uncomfortable at various times throughout the day.  I think I’m just going to bite the bullet and stop wearing them.  Maybe I’ll stick ’em on a necklace so I don’t look like a single mom to soon to be 5.  Not that I really care, honestly, if that’s how I look.  Everyone can just bite me.  Isn’t that what a third trimester mom is supposed to talk like and feel like? 😉

In Other News…

Okay, so besides my SI pain, which seems to have taken over as my singular pregnancy symptom, we DO have some exciting news in our house!

My 2 year old is doing GREAT with potty training!  We started with about a week and a half of just keeping him bottom naked.  We would encourage him to use the toilet every 15 minutes, then drew it out slowly to 30, and now we’re asking him maybe every hour (unless he shows signs of needing to go sooner).  TMI, but he’ll come to us grabbing his butt cheek if he needs to poop, so he’s doing that on the potty, too.

Funny enough, we’ve been offering him ice cream or chocolate to poop on the potty, so as soon as he is wiped and washed, he RUNS to our freezer, opens it, and starts picking an ice cream.  He is so funny and sweet!

I bought him some Spiderman underwear (his choice) on Wednesday, and he peed in 2 pair that day.  The next day, we talked about keeping Spiderman dry, and he has stayed dry in them ever since.  He even stayed dry out in public, and also stayed dry for an hour each way as we went to a blogging event on Friday!  I was so impressed, and I still can’t believe that my 28 month old boy is potty training so well.

He’s even waking up a little more dry than usual.  He used to have a totally soaking, sagging diaper, but now it’s about half as heavy when he comes downstairs to see us in the morning.  In fact, the past few days, he’s been coming to me, pointing to his butt, pointing to the diaper changer, and then insisting on DaDa when I ask if he wants me to help him go potty.  SO Daddy gets up with him and takes him to the bathroom each morning.  It’s a dude ritual I guess. 🙂

Homeschool is going well.  We started full speed on Monday, and it’s going great!  I really need to blog about our final curriculum selections for the 2014-2015 school year, but I’m going to wait until we have it all in hand first!  Yes, I’m still buying stuff!

I will say, though, that the selections I’ve made to switch things around seriously have been tried and tested by thousands of other homeschooling families, so I feel really confident in the choices I’ve made.

My kids think that I’m assigning them way too much and insist that it takes them 5 hours to complete it.  First of all, they’d be in school for longer than that if they went to public or private school.  Second of all, it only takes that long when you factor in a long lunch and a trip to Target.  I mean, really.  Crazy kids.
That’s pretty much it here!  I have a midwife appointment Monday and another chiropractor appointment the next week.  I hope it all goes well!