33 Weeks

It looks like I spoke too soon last week when I thought I might have been getting better. Instead I came down with the third wave of this illness, which made the previous couple of weeks look like a piece of cake. This wave involved copious amounts of coughing, an instantly raw throat, low-grade fever, and general feeling of awfulness. I'm still trying not to take any over-the-counter medications unless absolutely necessary, so I was relying pretty heavily on elderberry syrup (not like that's any hardship, given how delicious it is) and vitamin C for my immune system, warm honey with lemon and lots and lots of tea/hot water (when tea started turning my stomach) for my throat, and nearly double the amount of water I normally drink (to help with coughing overnight and apparently to ensure I wake up to use the bathroom every two hours). I also have been going to bed early every night - include New Year's Eve. I think I even beat Josie by falling asleep at 9pm.

And since I never seem to learn my lesson, let me just say that I'm feeling slightly better now again ;)

I also had an appointment with the midwives this week, and new baby is still posterior, but is at least facing more to my right side now rather than straight ahead. I'm pretty sure this is the exact same position Josie was in too, which led to me having to lay on my right side almost my entire labor to try to get her in the right position. This was just a short one-on-one visit again, and then a longer group visit when we went over labor and delivery and post-partum care instructions. It's starting to sink in now that we're getting pretty close, especially now that we're on the other side of the holidays :)

Although I haven't tested positive for group beta strep again (as I did with Josie), I also started on the alternative GBS treatment just to be on the safe side, pending my retest in the next few weeks. The first phase of the alternative treatment is essentially just building up my immune system, which I could certainly use anyway. So I started on echinacea and astragalus tinctures twice a day, as well as an echinacea and burdock root infusion once a day. The herbal remedy stuff is actually the area that I feel like I'm furthest from the midwives on, but I also figure there's little chance of it doing harm and a probable chance of it doing some good, so I might as well give it a try. It may just be coincidence, but I'm already feeling better after taking the tinctures the last couple of days. And if I'm completely healthy by next weekend, that might push me into becoming a believer in this stuff ;)