Dead legs and other stories (21 weeks)

Yesterday we made it to 21 weeks! Which is kerrazee. I celebrated by going to hospital… Which wasn’t exactly the plan, but I guess who ever gets what they planned for?

I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was struck by this awful dead leg thing and it was super horrible. Well the day before yesterday it came back with a vengeance. It started Tuesday afternoon and I just thought maybe I’m tired or it was the high heels or something, but it carried on in both legs and got steadily worse. 

By Tuesday evening I was in agony. I got home and just put my feet up on the sofa and then decided to go to bed early and try and sleep it off. Except I couldn’t sleep. It was horrible. T even gave me a leg massage to help, which did a bit but I don’t think it’s realistic to expect your partner to massage your legs all night!

When I got up yesterday, Wednesday I still had the awful pain. I don’t know how to describe it other than “dead leg”. In both legs. Not numbness so maybe I experience dead legs differently to other people… It’s sort of a strong ache from within, and also feels a bit like your legs are swollen except they’re not. 

Man, it was horrible. I groaned all night and my boys (T and Dog!) slept through it although B did help me out with some of what I imagine were sympathy kicks but were probably “Mum, stop all this and go to sleep!” kicks. Argh. 

Got up yesterday still aching. It actually made me walk slower and everything. It’s a horrible constant pain which makes it hard to think about other things (like poor Dog on his morning walk). 

I had googled pregnancy leg pains the previous night as I lay awake in agony. It said that it might be circulation – the baby pressing on a vein or something, which is why you’re supposed to sleep on your left hand side. Or it might be vitamin deficiency (I think magnesium or potassium) which can be helped by eating bananas. I hate bananas! Or it might be dehydration, which seems super unlikely given the amount of water I usually drink. 

So yesterday morning I got a fruit smoothie including banana on the way to work. I can eat bananas in stuff, but the texture of them makes me bowk. I quite enjoy fruit smoothies though so that wasn’t too bad. I made sure to drink loads of water. It still hurt!

By lunchtime I thought I would ring the community midwives just to check. Also because I need to make an appointment to get my MATB1 form for work – it’s the form to tell them you’re officially pregnant and you can only get it after 20 weeks. They’d told me I would get it at my next appointment at 25 weeks. But my work requires confirmation before then. 

They asked a bunch of questions to confirm it wasn’t deep vein thrombosis. I wasn’t really worried about that as my legs weren’t visibly swollen or red and they were both the same size. They said I should go to the hospital day assessment unit and get checked out. 

I left work quite gladly as I really couldn’t concentrate with the pain. Headed to the hospital. Apparently I’m meant to carry my notes everywhere with me(!) so I had to go home first and get them. I got seem pretty quickly and one of the midwives checked B with a doppler and pronounced him “perfect”. Which was nice. His heartbeat was really easy to hear and a strong 150. She did some other checks too and said she couldn’t think why I would have that pain but it could be the heat. 

Then I had to wait to see a doctor. There was a medical emergency on the ward apparently so it took ages. I didn’t really mind except the hospital chairs are pretty uncomfortable to sit in for a long time, but I thanked my lucky stars it wasn’t my medical emergency and I hope whoever it was is okay. 

The doc eventually came by and did a load of checks. I keep getting asked if I have such and such family history and I keep telling them I don’t because I was adopted. I think they feel bad or something but I don’t really mind… I mean it saves me having to answer those questions at least. But I suppose it’s a bit frustrating not knowing your family medical history. I know some adoptees get really upset by this but it doesn’t really bother me as I’ve never had it. 

He said he thought it may be the heat or it may be the baby’s growth and pressing on a nerve or something. Weirdly I totally thought yesterday that my belly had grown a lot, almost overnight. When I go home yesterday, T even said he couldn’t believe how much it had popped out. Here’s a picture I took yesterday pm…

It’s funny as you can’t really notice it straight on but then when I turn to the side it’s like, OMG!

Anyway the doc said not to worry and to try and keep mobile and take paracetamol as a painkiller. (That’s known as acetaminophen in the US.) So I went home and ate a banana (urgh… Dog helped) and took a couple of pills. 

I also had a prearranged date (girl version) with a girl I used to work with. She had a baby a few months ago and I really wanted to catch up with her, as she lives in my borough and I wanted to get the lowdown on everything. So I took the boat(!) and went to meet her. 

Despite the aching legs I had a really nice time. She was over the moon for me and also I think happy to have someone to talk with about the birth and everything. She ended up having an emergency caesarean but had planned a natural childbirth. Even though it didn’t go totally according to plan she said she was happy with the care she received and once she’d gotten over the disappointment of it not going entirely to plan, she was loving it. 

It was nice to have someone talk about everything in an honest and realistic way! Plus a good old girly catch up. Sadly she’s moving out of the country soon otherwise B could have a girlfriend! 

So anyway, the upshot of it is that the dead legs have sort of calmed down for now. I’m not sure if I am condemned to a half-pregnancy of banana eating. I’ll keep you posted!

Work bump pic…

Here’s Grumpy Cat’s take on it…

As we speak, T has just popped out to the shops at almost 10pm to get some cream for me to put on our sticky toffee pudding. We got the pudding in our meal deal (Waitrose, darling) from our window shopping extravaganza on Sunday, and I couldn’t bear to have it without cream!

I think he’s a keeper. B does too and is kicking to tell me so. And Dog’s looking longingly at dessert… I love my little family!