Itchy-Scratchy and Waiting

This post will be complete without pictures to spare you. They are not pretty. About 4 weeks ago my legs started itching a little bit. I had Kevin rub some Burt's Bees lotion on them since I couldn't really reach my lower legs. Well within a few days we knew something was not quite right. I broke out in a weird rash from the knees to the ankles. Rather irritated I quickly blamed the Nail salon where I had received a pedicure just days before. And thus began the saga of finding out what it was. We thought hives, yeast, contact dermatitis, etc. Everything I tried to make it go away didn't work or made it worse! I was beyond frustrated. I finally sent a picture of it to my friend who is a nurse to see if she maybe knew what it could be. She texted me back saying it looked just like PUPPPs. Um what? Never having heard of that I jumped on the computer and googled it. Sure enough the pictures looked identical. The only thing was that it originates on the stomach and moves out to the extremities. Mine started on my lower legs and had stayed there at that point (it is now on my thighs, stomach, and arms). I email my midwife asking if she thought this could be it. Though she was a bit stumped by it's presentation as well she agreed it was likely what it was. I was relieved to finally know what this awful, itchy rash was but very depressed to then learn that the only cure for it is to have the baby! Not exactly in my control and I was about 36 weeks at this point. So knowing I had a few more weeks of this I started to slowly go insane. No sleeping because of the itching all through the night, no napping because of the itching all day.

Well here I am almost four weeks later, still pregnant, still itching. But I feel I am coping better. Perhaps because I have forgotten what it is like to not itch. They say a new habit takes 28 days to really become a habit. Well I guess it takes about a month to forget what normal is too. I would have loved to have this baby two weeks ago but he/she was obviously not ready so I am taking every day one at a time. I also got my mom to come down a week and a half early to help me out with Ayda and just daily stuff. I can't be outside during the day at all or it starts itching and will not give in for hours. My friend, Lauren, is also here. We have lots of help and hands on deck and I am thankful. Ayda can play outside with them. They can help with the lifting of her. And I can try to get some rest whenever the itching takes a break. We went to the mall this morning to walk hoping that being inside would be better. It definitely was but after about an hour of walking I was itching like crazy and just wanted to get back in the car and head home.

PUPPPs occurs in 1 and 200 woman, usually at the end of their pregnancy. The strange thing is that my close friend, Kaitlin, has it also. We are due 3 days apart which we thought was funny to begin with. Now we have this weird rash together. And 70% of the woman who get this rash have boys. So perhaps we'll both have boys days apart (or on the same day) and recover from the itching together. Very strange!

So we are all here waiting for Baby Lin to make his/her appearance. Every day I hope it's today and every night I hope it's tonight. If I think about having this till I am 41 weeks I want to scream so I am just living one day at a time and it is working. Otherwise I feel great and am loving this pregnancy so much. I have felt great and gotten along great. I'm not nearly as beat from this pregnancy as I was at the end of mine with Ayda. I keep telling myself that 4 or 5 weeks of itching has still been better than 5 months of throwing up, 7 months of extreme heart burn, and awful sciatic pain that I had with Ayda. Maybe, just maybe, the next time I post I'll be itch free and Baby Lin will be announced!

Maybe tonight?!?! :)