Cramps and Kreuger

Week 18

Just like clockwork the overwhelming tiredness has died down and I’m able to work for much longer and get more things done without feeling like I want to crawl under my desk for a nap. At least I can now at least try to keep up with my colleagues. Except now the symptoms have progressed to bloatedness and leg cramps: I’ve been waking up at all hours of the night with these horrific cramps running up and down my legs. After reading that this is a common symptom, due to the lack of blood flow when laying down straight I have tried a variety of simple remedies, such as putting my feet up on a cushion, having a cushion wedged between my knees and taking a great number of night time walks around the house. With droopy eyes, I return to bed, only to wake up with the same problem a couple of hours later!

On the plus side of all this, I’m pretty sure I felt the baby move for the first time this week. However, rather than the tummy butterflies feeling that everyone talks about…it was more like Freddy Kreuger's hand running his fingers lightly and quickly across my stomach! Not exactly the lovely, exciting sensation I was hoping for, but thinking that it was probably the baby was great. I mean, it wasn’t like the grumbling you get when you’re hungry, and neither was it like gas or like pulling a muscle! And, while we’re on the subject of gas and pulling muscles, those sensations have hit me more in the last couple of months than they have in the last couple of years. You never think of a pregnant woman experiencing half of these symptoms when you see them from the outside, and I’m sure women keep all this quiet when they get the big P. Then again, they’re not exactly the kind of symptoms a woman wants to admit she’s going through and you would only really know about the true ins and outs of pregnancy symptoms if you have been pregnant yourself. Or someone very close to you has. When I told my sister, she pretty much told me I had a lot more to come, which, while not mildly reassuring, will all be worth it for what I will get at the end.