38 weeks!

TODAY (yes I am being good this week ...) I am 38 weeks through my pregnancy ... and boy do I know it! I feel cumbersome and huge and have reached the point where I am ready for this baby to come. Thankfully the tooth (or lack of) is feeling better, thanks to some low dosage codeine that helped me through ... I have definitely been punished for eating all those cakes etc. over the past few months.

Where do I start? I have had a strange week, part spent in bed because I haven't been sleeping well and part making up for it by cleaning and ironing absolutely everything. I have been getting more and more sudden pains ... down there ... thanks to the baby 'headbutting' as we like to call it. One more thing which I have been experiencing is what a pain in the bum pregnancy is, literally! Sudden sharp shooting pains in that region, not good!! Nobody tells you about these things at the start, so when you start to experience them there is that panic of whether this is normal ... apparently it is, and very common too! I'm starting to think I might write my own 'warts and all' pregnancy book!!

So I've reached that point, as many women do, where I'm starting to think that trying the old wives tales of ways to bring on labour might not be such a bad idea, in the interest of science you see! It all started on Saturday when we went to the metro centre (shopping centre), the hubby wanted to get some new clothes and I never mind a spot of retail therapy even if it isn't for me, after the clothes shopping was done we headed to the newly opened wagamama restaurant where I ordered the katsu curry ... it was lovely but immediately afterwards I started to have really strong contraction like sensations, not painful but more intense than any I have had before. This accompanied by the fact I've been having constant dull aches in my lower back for the past few days made me think that this might be the start of something. By the end of the day the contractions had gone but the back ache was still there and a little stronger than before. Sunday I woke with the same back ache and regular but painless braxton hicks, we had also planned to go out for a belated birthday curry that night so I had my hopes high that the same thing might happen again, but to help things we decided to go out for a walk (something else that is supposed to help). The walk made sure we were hungry and the curry was beautiful, back ache was still there and I had some more painful tightenings but that was about it! I woke very early this morning and needed the loo, but I could barely get out of bed and when I did I felt like I couldn't walk because of the pains ... down there, I did eventually make it to the loo and the pains wore off! Today I have been absolutely exhausted, spending half the day in my PJs but determined to try some more remedies we went out again, this time for a shorter walk and for a hot and spicy pizza (according to babycentre forum these have proved successful for other people) so here I am, chronic heartburn and hoping that maybe this is what will have an effect!

So in summary, two curries have failed and hopes are currently riding on a hot and spicy cheesy bites pizza, if not I have stocked up on pineapple for tomorrows experiment, fresh pineapple is meant to help but you have to eat around 8! I have two large boxes of pre prepared fruit (which is probably all I would end up with if I was put in charge of preparing 8 of them!) which I plan to munch my way through tomorrow ... probably in between ironing and cleaning :)

I also have a midwife appointment tomorrow, hopefully the little rascal will have moved from back to back - I have been really good and done my exercises every day!

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