Thursday, July 31, 2014

Things I will not miss about being pregnant

Turning over in bed is complicated. I definitely have to wake up fully to do it and sometimes I need to get half out of bed to turn over.

Relatedly, not being able to lie on my back. I sleep on my side mostly, but I do generally spend some time relaxing on my back when I first get into bed. I can't do that at the moment!

Being a pin-cushion. With 2 injections and 4 blood glucose finger pricks a day, that's a lot of sticking needles into myself. Fortunately, I'm not squeamish about needles, but I won't miss having to stick myself multiple times a day.

The effort of getting up out of a chair or bed. Usually accompanied by an involuntary "Oof!".

The pain at the bottom of my ribs on the right hand side. Apparently this is common in pregnancy, something to do with the ligaments between the ribs relaxing and the bottom ribs bowing out to make more room. I'm not sure why since my torso is long enough that Zarquon doesn't really reach that high. But the pain is there, most of the time, especially at night when I lie on my right. I hope it just goes once I give birth. (I did ask an obstetrician about it since it can be a sign of something more serious like a liver infection or HELLP, but he was happy that I didn't have any other symptoms of anything serious and it should be nothing to worry about).

Being hyper cautious about what I eat. Not so much the normal diet restrictions of pregnancy (though I do have the occasional craving for Eggs Benedict) but the specific ones for gestational diabetes. I do think it's been good for me to be forced to eat healthily for the last couple of months and I hope some of my good habits (like salad wrap lunches and plenty of veg with my dinner) will stick after the GD has gone. But I do miss muesli for breakfast and sometimes I would love a bowl of ice cream!

Central heating! I'm so hot, all the time. It has been very hot for the last few weeks: 27C most days and sometimes up to 30 or 31C. What with that and the little furnace in my belly, I've been pretty sweaty, especially at night. Of course, once Zarquon's born, her temperature won't be being regulated by mine anymore and we'll have to make sure she stays cool enough/warm enough. But at least I won't feel so overheated all the time. I hope!

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