(This blog is a continuation from part 1)
My 1st and 2nd trimesters of pregnancy were fantastic, I thrived – Although in hindsight I probably took advantage of being able to eat more as I’m sure many first time mums do, believe me I’m paying for it now. My only concern was that I didn’t feel the baby kick at the top of my stomach, it was always low down kicks I mentioned this to my midwife who said as long as the baby is kicking several times a day then there is nothing to worry about. I also didn’t experience the whole “bowling ball” feeling, where it feels like you have a bowling ball between your legs when you walk, which is what a lot of other women had mentioned. But I didn’t worry too much about this, I knew my baby was well and healthy.
My 3rd trimester was slightly more troublesome, my blood pressure started to rise, it seemed to have crept up each time I visited the midwife for a check – My midwife put me on weekly visits throughout my 3rd trimester so she could keep an eye on me. Apart from the blood pressure everything else was ok, I was told that the baby was head down getting into the engaged position, I was so excited counting down the weeks at this point. Around 4 weeks before my due date my blood pressure was extremely high and I had been seeing a few flashing lights behind my eyes, the midwife told me to go to the hospital for monitoring – Upon going to the hospital they also discovered I had a small amount of protein in my waters which together with my other symptoms was a sign of Pre-eclampsia. Pre-eclampsia can be extremely dangerous for both mother and baby and often if a woman has signs of this condition the doctors will induce a pregnancy or perform an emergency cesarean depending on the degree of Pre-eclampsia, Luckily I only had the one episode of Pre-eclampsia symptoms, by this point I was in the hospital every 3 days for several hours of monitoring both me and the baby, my blood pressure was still slightly high but everything else was ok. At this point I was due in 2 weeks so I think the doctors wanted to hold on until my due date.
(The Road To Parenthood Part 3 Continues Here)
