Monday 14 March 2011

Competitive Mums already...?!

I have a lovely yoga teacher.  I was doing her classes before my pregnancy, and switched to pregnancy yoga this year.  The first 8-week set of classes I attended commenced with about 8 attendees, gradually dwindling as Mum's-to-be left on their maternity leave.

Just one new face last week, and another newbie this week.  A maximum of 5 attendees this round, so a small, intimate class.  Now I must say, everyone I've met so far has been just lovely.

So today's new girl is barely showing, but is at the 20-week mark (where I am).  I feel enormous, and said so with a laugh.  Some sarky comment came back at me... I'm surprised at how the competitive Mums are already showing up.  I mentioned that it depends on how each person's uterus is positioned... and got a smug smile back.

So I turned to one of the girls I've known a while and mentioned that I saw the doc last week, and had mentioned that I'd been worried that I'd not put any weight on yet.  New girl then, a little more quietly, mentioned that she'd already put a stone on.

Who's smug now then?  But perhaps I shouldn't have said that I actually lost 4kg's the first month after I found out I was pregnant... and have actually put on 600g since  *blush*

Has anyone else come across competitive Mums this early on?

PS.  I'm off for my 20-week scan tomorrow, wish me luck?  Halfway there!

Cheers, KangaRue

Tuesday 1 March 2011

Stressed much?

I've been lucky so far with my pregnancy, I fell pregnant pretty quickly (at the "geriatric" age of 37) and have had very little "morning" sickness etc, etc.

A couple of weeks ago I woke up with pins and needles in the fingers of my right hand.  6 hours later they finally went.  In the interim I jumped onto Twitter and asked if anyone else had experienced it - a couple of people asked if it was pregnancy related... bizarre, "how are pins and needles in my fingers pregnancy related?" I thought.  Apparently it is - having then searched online, I found out that sleeping on my back (which I had that night), can cause it.  Sleeping on my left hand side has alleviated it - if it kept happening, apparently a wrist splint may have helped.

So when on Saturday I got spots before my eyes, that increasingly got larger, started flashing and then went to blur (I could only see half of BoyWonder's face when I looked at him), I only slightly freaked.  And then the headaches - on and off since - kicked in.  Jumping online I worried that it could be pre-eclampsia.  Had any of these symptoms lasted for more than a couple of hours at a time, I was prepared to go to the hospital, but they didn't, so first thing on Monday I went to the GP.

The GP tested both my blood pressure and urine, both of which were normal.  But he was concerned, so he sent me to the emergency eye clinic at Queen Mary's Hospital.  Spending over four hours in the hospital to be told a doctor couldn't see me that day was frustrating, so I headed back first thing this morning, this time organised with books to read.  Which was a pointless effort, as they nurses soon put drops in my eyes that, once the stinging wore off, had the world in a complete blur!

After further examination, it turns out that it's likely a type of migraine.  With pregnancy your blood vessels get bigger in order to pump the additional 5 litres of blood in your system without raising blood pressure.  While the doc wants to run some blood tests etc. tomorrow, it's likely that it's just one of those pregnancy-related things.

Oh, and was I under any stress... between working full-time, studying part-time, and being pregnant, no... but perhaps my plans for five loads of washing, gardening, study and baking a cake for the weekend was expecting a bit much.  As it was, I got none of these things done, as I've been suffering with the headaches or asleep to escape them... so I guess this is a SilverLining that it wasn't anything serious, Pickle is fine, but it was just my body letting me know that perhaps I need to slow down a bit.

Cheers, KangaRue