Pregnancy: Week 17

I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago when I was seventeen weeks pregnant, and starting back with my Gentlebirth preparations!

This has been a really good pregnancy week. I feel so normal. Not too tired, not sick at all. Just normal – and I’m reveling in it because I know it won’t last.

As I mentioned last week, precisely because I feel so normal, I haven’t been feeling very connected with this pregnancy. It’s almost too easy to forget about it. That and the fact that I’m still only getting little flutters and not any real kicks makes it harder for it to sink in that my pregnancy is so far along.

Having a toddler keeps me busy too of course. Little Man has a cough – it started off as a dry tickly cough, which the doctor said was nothing to worry about. But now this week it’s a barking deeper cough. He’s still been sleeping reasonably well, but Charlie and I have hardly been sleeping at all because of it.

A few nights ago, I was particularly wrecked from all the broken sleep, and Charlie offered to take Little Man into our bed and allow me into the double bed in Little Man’s room to get some sleep. I could still hear the coughing though so I decided to pull out my earphones and listen to some of my Gentlebirth tracks. (I had originally planned to wait until I was 20 weeks to start – no particular reason, just an arbitrary timeframe I decided on.)

It’s three years now since I listened to those affirmations so I wasn’t sure how susceptible I’d still be to them. Wondering about my susceptibility and trying to pay attention to the words to see how much was familiar is the last thing I remember before being counted back up. I guess that answers that then. My subconscious has not forgotten all of my previous preparation!

I’d also forgotten how much I enjoyed listening to the tracks. They are just so relaxing. I’ve listened to then every day since. I guess that means my Gentlebirth preparations are starting a little earlier than I had planned. 🙂

Towards the end of the week, I experienced my first headache of the pregnancy. I went to bed early hoping to sleep it off, but had to resort to paracetamol the next morning when it still hadn’t eased. I felt a bit better for an hour or two but then the headache returned and I felt a bit light-headed for the rest of the day. I’m not sure what triggered it (poor sleep for the week maybe) but it was gone the following day and hasn’t returned since thankfully. I did experience something similar while pregnant with Little Man but it was much earlier – around 14 weeks.

On a whim at the end of this week, I contacted my old pregnancy yoga instructor to ask about classes and was delighted to find out she currently has a set in progress. So I went along last night to join in. I felt a real sense of déjà-vu while I was there. But I really enjoyed it. The instructor, Maria, is fantastic. She really sets everyone at ease and gives us all a chance to talk about where we are in the pregnancy and how we’re feeling during the intro to the class. Then she takes us through some great breath work (very important – I used the breathing techniques she taught me throughout labour last time), stretches, and pelvic floor exercises. And finally we do a relaxation exercise – at which point I dozed off a little! A nice way to round out week 17!

Find my complete pregnancy journal here.