Pain and Luncheoning

Lunch out for a second time in as many days!! What luxury!

A nasty moment this morning when it was suggested that bananas should be avoided in pregnancy.

What???!!!!$**^|!?

But it is ok. They are good. They are recommended, they are indeed a pregnancy superfood. Phew! I bought a bunch to celebrate, being as I was down to the last banana in the house.

I am told I am more pleasant in this pregnancy than my previous one. I don't entirely agree, I don't seem to be being very pleasant, but I was in a good mood today, at least in part because of having lunch with my friends two days in a row. Also lunchtime equals awakeness and I quite probably subjected my poor friends to evening grumpiness before. Who knows? I am feeling mellow and contented right now, which is nice.

I should be happy today anyway, it is the happiest day of the year, according to some boffinery. Although there's some logic about summer weather and holiday plans, neither of which apply here.

I do have impending maternity leave in THREE WEEKS. Well, five weeks, but I finish work 3 weeks today. Wooo!

Due to bad planning, I got a lift to the school in a two seater car, so we had to walk back. I cannot now do that one mile walk at all, it was almost unbearably sore. I'm almost at the point of not being able to walk anywhere. Yikes. At least I am vindicated in my decision to drive the one mile each day, something I am normally opposed to.

The boys have been given a DVD to watch and a DS to play so I can lie in a warm bath, which is about the only sure way to alleviate the pain.

Warm?? Ha. It's fairly hot or it would be pointless. My logic in this piece of advice ignoring is that I never have baths so hot that my temperature rises, nor so that my skin goes pink. Hot tubs are a no-no as they maintain the temperature whereas as regular bath cools fast enough to be safe for pregnant mommas.

And I had baths all the way through with the twins and everyone *knows* if you survive something one time it is therefore safe.

I like baths, I do. Not least because baby is very active in the bath, and has been since very early weeks. Which I am told is not possible but I know what I felt and it was at the same time I feel definite kicks. She's a wriggly un all right, so it's possible. I like seeing my belly undulate with baby jiving.

The weather did somewhat defeat me today. Glorious sunshine first thing meant I got dressed in a summer maxi dress and sandals, because the dress doesn't go with the other one pair of shoes I can wear just now. Checking of the weather report - after dressing - revealed that it was to rain all day. Now, getting dressed is no mean feat these days so changing was not an option. Instead I looked utterly insane with aforementioned attire, plus a raincoat and brolly. Itty bitty sandals not good for rain, floaty dress bit odd with coat.

Well, if you're not allowed to look a bit mad when you're pregnant...

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.

Decisions

There's a lot of decisions to be made.

The biggie: how to give birth. An elective section is my current mode of thinking after further research. TMI to explain why, just nod.

Another fairly large one: where to live. The 2 bed flat is obviously not going to do in the long run, once baby needs her own room, we need a room to put her in. Theoretically we can manage with baby in our room for a year, but... I think not. So when to try and move. Current thinking is to declutter/redecorate/pray and put this on the market and just wait till it sells. Hopefully soon, then we can rent in the shortish term. If that elusive sale isn't in time, we have to rent first and sell this empty. That's expensive obviously so not exactly ideal.

A small decision: what does baby sleep in?
Option one: into the cot straight away. This worked for the boys but there were two of them (early days they shared) and they had their own room.
Option two: the very nice crib that was mine and which has been lingering in our loft forever. No good for twins so we never used it. Smaller than a cot, cute and it rocks. As in, it has a rocking motion, it's not particularly awesome.
Option three: a Moses basket. Handy on account of its portability. Possibly too frou frou.
Option four: all of the above, except I'm not mental.

The ongoing decision is names. Obviously the scan will reveal which type of name we need (5 sleeps!!) as I don't like unisex names, but big decision time if it's a Hubert.

Final decision is when to take maternity leave. Actually, I think the answer is ASAP as I'm struggling a bit.

20 weeks now, that's halfway! If we ignore the two weeks prior to conception. Next week is really halfway between supposed conception and supposed due date but hey ho. It's all rather imprecise.

Much the same as 19 weeks symptomwise. Movements are more recognisable, and very frequent. Back pain is getting rubbish, lying down is v difficult and so sleep is a problem. I have a physio appointment next Monday though so hopefully I'll get advice/props to aid me. I also have pain walking and what not, it's not great. I am a teeny concerned as to how difficult getting to the school and back is going to be when they go back after the summers hols. I'll be 35 weeks or so then. Urgh. I'll need to allow 40 mins each way instead of 5-10.

Many things

More buggy hunting. Today I was offered a used mamas and papas all terrain buggy complete with footmuff etc, which is ace (and very kind) but rather massive. So marvellous for any trips to beaches and general walking, not so good for taking in the car. As this is offered gratis, that frees up funds for a lightweight buggy.

Enter the Quinny Senzz. I think that's how you spell it? Solves the ooh-the-Quinny-Zapp-is-ace-and-small-but-a-bit-difficult-yet-the-Zapp-extra-folds-separate-from-the-seat issue by being almost as compact but folding intact. And it has a decent shopping basket. And it comes in burgundy, which is important (but as it has a pink lining does somewhat depend on the baby being female).

So that's today's decision. Plenty time to change my mind again; I have a currently private wish list that I update almost daily with the latest buggy choice.

Today's pregnancy related excitement was to find baby located up beside my belly button. Baby is a very wrigglesome baby indeed, she (unspecific means female - or something) stays in one position for no more than 30 seconds. That may be due to the hard machine prodding it of course. That didn't bother R though, he was chilled and relaxed through each scan. O was a very very wriggly foetus!

I seriously hope baby allows a peek at what gender s/he is, I simply can't wait until the birth. They nearly didn't find out with O at the 20 week scan as he wouldn't stay still. Urg.

Symptom of the moment: backache. I cannot lie on my back, it is veh veh painful. I know this is normal much later on in pregnancy but I'm not sure why now. Tummy lying is out, it just all feels a bit squashed, and lying on my right makes me feel queasy. Happy days. Or nights to be precise, sleep is tricky. I tried a pillow between the legs but that did seem to aggravate the problem last night.

It's ok until I try to lie down. Which makes sleeping easier. Usually.

Assuming it works out with my employer, I plan to take maternity leave as soon as I am entitled to at 29 weeks. I seriously don't think I can handle working, being pregnant and juggling childcare through the summer holidays. Admittedly this creates a problem for next summer if/when I go back, but I will need to have "proper" childcare in place, and I won't be pregnant then.

So, if all tallies with leave and whatnot, I have two months left to work.

That's still ages, even coming off early. And I'll have the joyous third trimester with two 5 year olds at home all day...

On second thoughts I may work through the holidays and sign the boys up for every playscheme going. Maternity leave can start when they go back. Which is the way to sanity??