I’ve been wanting to write about my pregnancy from the beginning. I love reading blog articles from other pregnant women myself. And now that I’m pregnant, I would love to share this new journey with you. It’s not too late yet, so from now on I’ll inform you guys more about my pregnancy!
Time flies. I’m at 28 weeks now, which means we’ve arrived in the third trimester. Pregnancy apps start showing a countdown on a daily bases. It sounds like nothing, 11 weeks and 6 days. It’s like a holiday countdown! We try not to get nervous, even though there is still so much we need to arrange.
We have a new feature on the blog, by the way. You can see it in the sidebar on the right. A countdown! Now you can follow how much days we have left until the due date. What do you think, will it be the birth date?
Sunny Sunday
Unfortunately this first time writing about my weeks of pregnancy, this one wasn’t that good. The start was, though. Last Sunday the weather was very nice. 16 degrees! So I had to go out and enjoy. My good friend Anniek and I met up in Tilburg. We had a lovely day, with frozen yoghurt, some drinks, McDonald’s (McKroket!) and many trips to the toilet.
On my way back home I didn’t get lucky with public transport, there was planned maintenance and the NS would arrange buses. For some reason, the bus never came, so I had to wait 45 minutes in the cold. With my full bladder. I got home right in time! Tired after a busy day.
Uh-oh
Unfortunately on Monday I woke up with a sore throat. It didn’t seem too bad, but around noon I was so tired I needed a nap. From that moment on it went from bad to worse. At night I had 39,3 degrees fever and my throat was infected.
When pregnant, you have to be extra careful when you are ill. It could affect the baby and the baby is weaker than the mother. Advice is to consult a doctor when the fever is over 38,5. They may want to investigate what is causing the fever, to exclude something that could damage the baby.
The midwife advised to take paracetamol and go to the doctor the next morning. So, Tuesday morning we spent 1,5 hour in the waiting room of the doctor. Not so much fun when you feel horribly ill. I still had a fever and had thrown up right before going there. And I had to throw up again while we were waiting. For those who know I have a vomit phobia – yes, not cool.
The doctor noted blood pressure was low, while my heart rate was very high. I seemed dehydrated. They took a blood and urine sample, consulted a gynaecologist and advised me to go to the hospital. Just to be sure. I would probably have to stay the night. Also, just to be sure.
I have to admit it scared me a bit. I’ve never been hospitalized, apart from when I was a baby. On the other hand, it was comforting to know I would be in good hands.
Pregnancy can cause so much doubts and questions. You are responsible for a little human being inside of you, after all. And who knows more about that than a team of midwifes, nurses and gynaecologists?
Hospital
Upon my arrival I got connected to an IV straight away, for the dehydration. It hurt so much, I’m very sensitive when I don’t feel well. Also my veins weren’t really visible, which didn’t make it easier. Some painful moments later, the IV was up and running. There was more blood taken, and they also needed to fill a few small bottles to culture my blood. I don’t think there was still much left inside of me after all that.
Luis stuck with me all day, supporting me and helping me whenever I needed something. He stayed with me as much as he could all the other days as well – the advantage of not having to go to work.
According to the tests, I only had a slight infection. My throat being very infected, the doctors suspected that being the cause. They couldn’t do anything special for me. They didn’t want to give me anti-biotics and with paracetamol being the only ‘medicine’ a pregnant woman can take, I got send home the day after. I just had to sit this one out.
Back home
Still suffering a lot, but there wasn’t anything else I could do. Fortunately a few days later I did feel improvement. I was still worried about the high heart rate though. At some point I told my mother I was curious and that there was no way to find out what my heart rate could be. Then she came with a great idea. I have a Doppler to hear the babies heart – which I didn’t want to use these days, to avoid unnecessary concerns. But of course I could also use it on myself! So this time Luis was trying to find my heart rate, instead of babies heart rate.
We already knew the baby was all fine. In the hospital there were a few ECG’s taken from the babies heart – and it was ticking strongly! Only a bit faster than usual because of my fever, but the nurses reassured me it doesn’t cause danger to the baby.
You probably can imagine the rest of the week I didn’t do anything special. Apart from our blog. It looks slightly different right now. Okay, Luis actually changed the whole layout the day before I got sick! It was a shame we couldn’t work on it right away, but now we finally start to see the improvements. I hope you like it!
