Blog From A Broad

even my uterus is irritable

Jack's had a couple of restless nights lately and has suddenly decided that 6am is a great time to wake up for the day. Yeah, it's great if you're a farmer. Paul did Jack duty two nights ago and I got up with him early this morning. I carried him downstairs, made his breakfast, carried him back upstairs, and spent ten minutes trying to pin him down with one arm and put his clothes/nappy on with the other while he wriggled and yelled. My lower back started to hurt, so I continued the wrestling sitting down next to him. As I got his last sock on and we went to brush his teeth, I started cramping. Nothing too severe, but it was very uncomfortable and eventually I had to go lie down. It felt like a cross between period pains and having eaten something dodgy, and then my belly felt very tight. This made me nervous, so I rang my midwife.

She suspects that I'm having Braxton Hicks contractions, which is new to me because I never had any with Jack. Apparently it's common to not experience them in first pregnancies but feel them in subsequent pregnancies, and it makes sense considering I seem to have gone through a pregnancy spurt over the weekend. My bump is even bumpier, I've gone up a cup size (I'm not joking), and I'm already getting pulling pains when I stand up or roll over. Oh yes, and the swelling...my hands and legs are already getting puffy. I've not even hit week 18 yet. Lovely.

I suppose it's not surprising that things happen earlier when you've already had a child, and it's not like I can just flop out on the sofa whenever I'm not at work. I'm tired, I've got a much busier life now, and I ain't getting any younger. This pregnancy malarkey is a lot harder the second (and more) time around. Or at least it has been for me.

But saying all that, I am grateful for every single day that passes without incident. Now that I can feel Beanie kicking and squirming away in there, things are much better. Time is flying now too, and that also helps enormously.

In other pregnancy-related news, I can't stop eating (give me anything salty or spicy), I have the urge to knit tiny things, the first episode of this season's ER made me cry like a lunatic, and I almost slapped the nurse at the surgery last Monday. Business as usual, then.