Week 23 update

I've kind of gone off on a factual sharing thing of late. I'm not sure why, I guess I'm harbouring a desire to write a pregnancy book.  Harbouring? Yeah, right. It has a name and a contents page.

Anyway.

Tomorrow I shall be 23 weeks pregnant and onto week 24. According to my adjusted dates the following timeline applies:

Weeks till due date
Weeks till intended delivery: 15
Weeks since discovery of pregnancy: 18
Weeks since first scan: 11
Weeks since anomaly scan: 2
Weeks till third trimester: 4
Weeks till I finish: 5 (!!!!!!!!!!!)
Weeks till maternity leave starts as opposed to regular leave: 7
Weeks till return to work: 56

We also have to add in a couple of less inspiring target dates - there are 4 weeks until the summer holidays, and worse, there are 10 weeks until they go back to school and need waddled up and down each day. There are also 10 weeks left until I hand in the so far unwritten dissertation. Oh yikes.




And onto symptoms. There aren't that many at the moment.


Fatigue. 
This is not the all consuming must-sleep-now fatigue of the first trimester, it is more a feeling of being worn out. Yesterday I walked the children to school and then onto work, walked home from work and lay down for two hours. I then ate some lunch and walked back to the school, home again and then did some homely things, dishwasher, washing machine, dinner for everyone. And then I was done in. Absolutely.


Digestive icks
Nausea has mostly gone. Sense of smell is still hyper and there's a queasiness on encountering a smelly person - smoker, overperfumed person or unwashed person, consumer of too spicy food - or icky smells. Not nausea though, that has been replaced by indigestion. Stomach capacity is much reduced and I get full easily. Hunger is still immense and I'm still off a lot of foods and into hugely fattening sweet things. Bloatedness has gone and the whole system is sluggish rather than stopped.


Physical signs 
The huge belly that wriggles and changes shape on occasion
The breasts that don't look like breasts any more but that thankfully are less sensitive.
Other than this, the rest of me hasn't expanded. I'm much the same shape as before, ankles and what not remain their usual size, bum hasn't taken over any countries.

of course, not forgetting...

Pain

For me, the PGP is the worst. At best it is niggly, at worst it is seriously agony. Walking is difficult bending over is impossible. I have pain in my lower back and where my pelvis meets at the front. The front pain was almost too much walking to work this morning, it seems to be getting worse.  Not being able to take painkillers is hard.

Headaches are common

Abdomen generally aches

Emotional signs
Supergrumpiness. 
Total intolerance
Short temper
Tendency to burst into tears

Fears
Premature delivery
Stillbirth
Own death during childbirth
Childbirth complications

And that, I think pretty much sums up me at nearly 24 weeks.