Gracie’s Life Experiment

I’ve not been too bad all pregnancy with the indigestion.  Managed to mostly get away with taking a Rennie every now and again which made it go away fairly quickly.  Today was horrible.  I had awful indigestion and everytime I hiccupped or burped I got a mouth full of acid that then made me choke and cough.  Yeuch!  After eating quite a few Rennies it wasn’t really working.  We had a bottle of Gaviscon, but alas it was empty - I even tried putting it upside down and licking the inside of the lid.  Tried drinking more water to neutralise it.  Nope that didn’t work either.  I felt awful and also my stomach was really bloated and tight.  Not comfortable.  In the end I ended up having a bath and paracetamol (as I seemed to be getting a bit of a temperature).  This didn’t solve the acid problem, but made me so sleepy that I managed to go to bed straight after!

Summary of the day:  Had a lie-in to catch up on sleep, Did loads of gardening (pruned the bushes, weeded, planted out some ageratum), Got horrid indigestion, Hubby made porridge (that was black), Watched Dr Who on beeb 3, Had a bath

Today was lovely, until about 3pm.  We went to the carvery for lunch and I think I overate.  My stomach went all tight (not too different from most days) but then it got really uncomfortable.  It felt like my upper stomach area was totally distended.  Decided to have a little lie down and nap, and then the cramps started.  Ouch.   I did start to worry a bit when the cramps came and went - checking the trusty internet I realised I wasn’t in labour at 27 weeks as the cramps were only high up and they weren’t getting longer or more frequent!  I had horrible indigestion too, but decided to hold off on taking Gavison for as long as I could as if I neutralised the acid then I wouldn’t be able to digest properly (and prob make things worse).  In the end hubby made me go have a hot bath - ah, that sorted it out.  How embarrassing would it have been to have gone to hospital and for them to diagnose that I wasn’t having a baby, but just eaten too much!!?

Conclusion is I think I probably had Braxton Hicks mixed with bad indigestion mixed with dehydration mixed with eating too much!  Won’t do that again in a hurry.

Summary of the day:  Played piano in church, Went out to carvery with friends for lunch, Tidied house, Lay down and got pains, Moaned and cried a bit, Ate 3 grapes (felt worse), Had a bath, Felt much better, Redesigned my personal website, Jam on toast for dinner at 10pm

Something happened last night when I went to bed.  Everything was fine and then suddenly after about 1/2 hr of lying there my back twinged.  Ow!  Then I could hardly move and was stuck like a tortoise on its back.  Couldn’t sleep much and had to wake hubby up to help me out of bed for the usual toilet stop at 4am.  It was so bad I couldn’t even roll sideways.  This morning I just about made it out of bed and propped myself on the sofa, I can roll sideways but only if I breathe in first.  Thankfully I have Wednesdays off so I didn’t have to go to work - I think I couldn’t have even got into the car.  It’s not feeling so bad now but still twinges if I reach for things and I can’t take deep breaths (bugger when u need to take your inhaler) and the twinges put me off my sneezes/belches/coughs half way through.   It really feels like I’ve twisted a muscle in my back at the base of my ribs.  Don’t think it’s baby related, but who knows what with all the changes going on with my spine (I’m pretty sure it didn’t use to bend in at a right angle in my back).  If it’s still painful in the morning I will see if I can get a doctor’s appointment.

Summary of the day:  Cried, whimpered, cried, Got back twinges, Had a shower (got stuck with one leg in and one leg out of the bath and hubby had to help me out), Played on the internet. 

It was an absolute scorcher today in Sydney (well, it was about 28 deg which is warm for us Poms).  We got up early (I did, everyone else was hungover from last night’s dinner).  We went for a refreshing swim to wash out the cobwebs.  My brother’s house in Bundeena is about 3 mins walk from the beach (I think Gunyah beach) and about 10 mins to Jibben beach.  The water wasn’t too cold (the river house pool is much colder) but was so salty my eyes were stinging and running with tears.  My skin stung like hell as well, but I think it’s meant to be good for the eczema. 

We were meant to be getting the ferry from Bundeena to Cronulla to get lunch but my brother neglected to tell us what time it left, which gave us only 3 mins to get to the end of the pier.  Only he made it on time by running down.  John got to about 1/2 way down the pier.  I got to the top of the road (could just about see the pier) by the time the ferry left.  Why do these men not seem to understand that the baby bump does not seem to have proper shock absorption properties for me (fine for baby).  Everytime I got past a certain speed it was bouncing all over the place.  Then it went really really firm and was quite sore.  Spent the rest of the day feeling terrible, various extremities started to swell up and had to lie down and sleep.  Shrimp punished me for the rough ride by kicking lots.

Summary of the day:  Went to the beach, Had yum cha, Felt bad and napped all afternoon, Watched Little Britain Live DVD in the evening.

Had a bad night’s sleep.  Think it’s mostly the stress of this report deadline and also the extra heat I seem to generate through being pregnant but my skin was crawling.  I was sooo itchy.  Thankfully I didn’t have to go to work so had a nice Oilatum bath to relieve the itching and then slathered myself with paraffin/wax ointment till I was as slippery and shiny as a seal!  It’s so annoying having bad eczema.  I’ve also noticed that people seem to be suggesting that the 2nd trimester is meant to be good for my skin - NO IT ISN’T.  It’s worse now than before, I’m itchy, too hot, peeling, weepy and on top of that I seem to have managed to develop some spots (now, people who know me will know that as my skin is so dry I maybe get at most 10 spots in a year!).  It makes me so irritated when people talk about this so called “Pregnancy Glow”.  I think it’s actually a myth and that it only looks like a glow because you’re finally feeling better and not looking like s**t for the first time in 3 months.

Summary of the day: Scratched, scratched, Had a bath, Tried to do some work, Had an afternoon nap, Relaxed, Scratched some more

Why is it that I get ill at the weekend?  My nose has been perma-running since Friday lunchtime and it is now officially trying to escape from my face (via a painful crack between my nostrils).  Ow, ow and ow!  Stayed in the house today as it’s been quite cold this weekend with hail and snow.  Had a couple of kitten naps (very short cat naps) which made me feel even drowsier.  Rach and Lou came and took Mocha for a walkies which she thoroughly enjoyed (even though it resulted in her having to have a shower when she got home).  I can’t believe the number of colds/flus/infections I seem to pick up - it’s really irritating!

Summary of the day: Spent most of it wrapped in my duvet, Moaned a lot, Had some naps, Moaned some more.

Well, I had my 2nd day (well first full day) home off sick with this chest infection.  I got all the laundry caught up with, bummed around the house.  Couldn’t really go out as it was pouring down and prob wouldn’t be good for the chest.  By 2pm I was bored.  I’d checked all the usual websites, played piano a couple of times, played with the dog.  Who knows how I will entertain myself on maternity leave?  I suppose if I know I have few days then I can do a larger project, like doing some painting/drawing, etc.  I will have to find some other mother friends to spend the time with.

 At 3pm I decided to cook something nice for dinner and got to work on a curry.  My taste buds are screwed and I kept adding so many spices, yet it still seemed to taste like tomato soup (no I didn’t put tomato soup in).  I think it must be a pregnancy thing as I coated the top in chilli powder and still couldn’t taste it.  10 mins b4 husband came home I thought to myself, I wonder what fruits are in tamarind (yes I thought it was a mixture of stuff like sultanas) only to find out that I had poisoned the curry.  Apparently you’re not meant to eat the seeds - I couldn’t find out an explanation on the ‘net but I think they are strong laxatives!!!  So John ended up making another curry when he got home.  It was a lovely Thai Green curry.

Summary of the day:  Stayed at home, Did housework, Napped, Tried to poison us

Bloody dog decided it would be fun to wake up at 3 in the morning and bark (some cats or something in the garden having a fight).  Which thus resulted in a crap night’s sleep for me, and the mother of all headaches in the morning.  Felt absolutely awful and stayed home (it’s bad when you’ve only been back 2 days at work and need a day off already).  Hope it isn’t the start of that winter vomiting virus (yeuch) which is apparently spreading like wildfire round the UK.

Summary of the day:  Woke up at 3, Didn’t sleep until 7, woke again at 9, slept again at 11, Rach came over to keep me company in the afternoon

Woke up this morning and have the mother of all headaches.  It’s painful at the temples, and throbbing at the back.  Woke up and had some paracetamol for breakfast!!  Spent the day at home today mostly in a darkened room moaning about the headache.  Had a nap in the afternoon and woke up feeling even groggier.  I hate autumn/winter - from October to February I get a string of different flus and viruses (it’s a pain at our house as I bring home all the student strains and hubby brings back the school kids versions).  Ah well, one more week of work - hopefully I’ll be feeling better for Christmas.  In 2000 I remember spending Christmas in bed at my parents’ home by myself while everyone else went to my brother’s for dinner.

Summary of the day: my head hurt!!!

Finally I’ve decided when I’m going to take some more of my annual leave.  I usually end up with so much towards the end of the year (runs from Apr-Mar each year) and I have about 1/2 left as we didn’t actually go anywhere on holiday last summer.  So I’ve elongated my Christmas hols by a week (brill, I get 2 1/2 weeks off) and I’ll take some of John’s 1/2 term off in March and a few days before Easter.  Then I’m into next year’s allowance - no idea when I’ll take that, but there’s a trip planned to Oz at some point ;)  Checked my contract and looks like I’m outta job at end of Sept so I need to either go for a lectureship or try and get an extension to my contract.  Or maybe just leave for Australia instead - which would be kinda cool, but scary as there’s so much organising to do.

Summary of the day: Got blood tests done (ow 9 vials of blood…ow ow ow ow almost fainted), Found out my blood pressure is 120/60 (which ain’t bad for someone who has a BMI of 30), Went to office, Had a meeting on campus at 3, Went home early (still felt woozy after the bloods), Watched Universally Challenged, Went to bed early