The Bump and the Hump

As you may already know, not only do I blog here but I also pop on over to contribute to the A Mothers Secrets blog also, and this month the topic is Pregnancy Lows.

A great topic as those pesky Pregnancy books don't always tell you about the times when you wonder if there's not an alien life form growing inside you, sucking the very life out of you from the inside out for 9 months. In fact the best pregnancy guide book I ever read was by Joan Rivers, called "Having a Baby Can Be A Scream". In it, she was honest about the highs and lows of carrying a tiny tot.

For any of you who have just found that they are pregnant, read on with caution-but be sure to know that the minute they hand you that baby you'll forget the awful bits. Eventually.

When I got pregnant with Chrissy, I was ecstatic. I had been waiting years and years to get pregnant, and the fact I finally was filled me with an excitement I'd never felt before.

For the first few months, everything was fine and dandy. I had no morning sickness (unlike with Edward-a whole week of being unable to move without vomiting), and was feeling very smug. One of my friends was 3 months ahead of me in her pregnancy and had had horrendous morning sickness, swollen ankles, and was unable to do much more than nibble a ginger biscuit. She had very sore boobs too- something that didn't trouble me, and for once I was happy I was flat chested.

I hardly showed at all, and comfortably fitted into my 30 inch waist jeans up until I was seven months. In fact most people said that from the front you could hardly tell I was pregnant.

Ok, now you're thinking "err Claire this is a blog on low points in pregnancy."

Then came 7 and a half months.

Overnight, my pregnancy grin was replaced by a pregnancy grimace.

I went to bed one evening and was shattered-we were looking for a new house to move to and had been back and forth to letting agents. The flat we were in, scene of many parties, Christmases and everything else for five years as a couple with no kids was no longer big enough. We toyed with the idea of turning the seldom used front room into a nursery by putting a stud wall up to create a hall, but the landlord had said no.

At 2am, I was desperate for the loo- that had so far been the one inconvenience of pregnancy. I went to get out of bed, as normal, by swinging my legs up and out the bed.

And it felt like someone had snapped my legs off below the knees.

I literally couldn't move, and was crying in agony.
I had to face it, either lie here and wet myself, or crawl to the loo, so I crawled, crying and swearing all the way. Of course I woke Ed up, but he was baffled. He told me to phone my midwife in the morning.

The pain started to subside and I went back to sleep.

I phoned the midwife in the morning and she said she'd visit.

When I told her what had happened, she paused mid sip of tea and said "oh its just cramp"

JUST CRAMP! I said incredulous. There was no just about that. It bloody hurt! Her advice was to roll my feet at the ankles whilst sitting still, and to raise my feet on pillows at night. So, with trepidation I went to bed that night and did as I was told.

It didn't work.

By the time Chrissy was born, I don't think I had slept for more than an hour a night due to this cramp. It hurt so badly that I had literally got to the stage of lying stock still in bed all night in case if I moved even slightly the cramp would happen again.

I cannot begin to describe how happy I was when Chrissy was born. Not just because my beautiful daughter was here at last, but the cramp stopped immediately. And because the first night she was born my daughter slept through, I got a whole nights sleep.

So when I got pregnant with Edward I was dreading the after seven months cramp thing happening again. But I never found out because he was born at 28 weeks.

Cramp- the word still fills me with dread. I swear as I type this I'm rolling my feet at the ankles!

But there was one consolation of pregnancy apart, of course, from the baby-my chest was no longer flat, and has not been since! Yippee!!!