35 Week Special: Ham hands & hot hobbit feet in a pool of saliva

I can't claim to be feeling terrible, even 5 weeks from our due date, but I do have a few ailments I'm sure you're all dying to know about. Let's start with the ham hands. After a bit of a nervous "episode" on Friday, Paul decided I needed to get out of the city so we spent the day up in Santa Barbara. It was much cooler there than by our house, but I couldn't escape the swelling of the hands and feet. After dipping my feet in the cold ocean water they felt a lot better, but my hands didn't. My fingers swell up and the palms of my hands turn odd shades of red and white. Not pretty, and, thanks to Paul, the phenomenon is now known as "ham hands." These ham hands have gone from the 6 rings I normally wear to one $5 oversized faux silver band on my wedding finger. I tried to make my wedding band work, but sayonara! No dice. In addition I have achey finger joints all day long, which is supposedly due to excess fluids hanging around my digits. Along with the arthritic ham hands I have NHFS (Nightly Hot Foot Syndrome). This is annoying as hell, especially for Paul I reckon, because the only thing that cools them down is a foot massage. Even with the inevitable soothing foot massage, I could do without the NHFS, thank you. What could possibly make all this better? An endless supply of saliva! Where is all this excess saliva coming from? I can't stop drooling, especially when I sleep. This afternoon I fell asleep and woke up with a giant pool of drool on my arm, with more dripping from the side of my mouth. I wiped it off, dozed off again, and it was like I never wiped away the first lot. While all this is going on, Mave is tucked away in there getting her beauty rest in preparation for her arrival. Then she can pick up with the drooling where I left off.