Week 22

I am having problems sleeping and it ruins my whole day. Being my third pregnancy, I guess everything is completely stretched out and the impact on my bladder is phenomenal. I find myself waking to use the toilet, which is disruptive enough. When I get back into bed, I try and feel the baby kick, and if it doesnt kick straight away, I find myself wide awake, changing positions to feel movement. The panic I feel when I dont feel movement for a while is awful. I eventually get up, drink milk and eat a biscuit, which gets Rainbow Baby wriggling around a fair bit. I also have a stash of Starburst lollies in the cupboard for that ultimate sugar boost to get the kid kicking. However, this baby already moves much more that Sybella ever did. Perhaps her lack of movement was a sign. I cant say, really. Maybe she was just a quiet little girl, and that was her personality. Or maybe her lack of movement was a clue to some sort of physical weakness. As you begin to feel movement in a pregnancy, it starts off gently and gets stronger as the weeks go on. With Sybella, her movements were the quintessential bubbly, twitchy feelings at first. But they never got any stronger than that, even late in the piece. Kelvin couldnt even feel her through my abdomen until I was 30 weeks pregnant. But now, at 22 weeks, I can feel jabs and punches through my stomach (although Kelvin cant yet) which is much more reassurring.
Apart from the lack of sleep, life is okay. Anxiety is still a day to day occurrance and I keep having curve balls thrown at me. The latest is Chicken Pox at Jack's preschool. The teachers rang me at home to tell me, the lovely ladies! Jack has been immunised and I have had the virus at age 13, a very bad dose. I had my immunity checked and I am immune. So I am not particularly worried about contracting it, although I do have my knickers in a knot regarding the immunisation status of the children at preschool. A very contentious issue, I am aware and I wont get into it here. But let me say that immunisation is something I am passionate about and as far as I am concerned, it is a community health issue. You only have to read the story of 5 week old Carter Dube and his death from Pertussis to know that. But what is more worriesome is the newish claims that Carter's contraction of Pertussis was due to seasonal pesticides usage in California. Okay....

Enough of that. It's my gripe. One of my "things." I dont mean to be controversial, but this is an important issue for me and one close to my heart.

Unfortunately, the Chicken Pox news coincides with super itchiness all over my body! However, this itchiness has come and gone throughout this pregnancy and I'm sure that the current source is pyschological. I have had dermatitis on my arm and right shoulder from day one of this pregnancy, so that explains that. I just wish for one week where I dont have a drama to write about! Although everything has gone well so far, it hasnt been without its complications.

Maybe I'm just one of those people who have dramatic pregnancies. I dont want to be one of them though. Then again, who does?

See Baby This Week