| John Braxton Hicks: A Wise Man with a Great Beard Image from here |
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! The last couple of days I’ve been suffering from some rather painful Braxton Hicks contractions. For those of you whose knowledge of pregnancy has been gleaned from FRIENDS, you will remember Rachel Green suffering from Braxton Hicks; they’re basically practice contractions. Yes, they are as fun as they sound.
This evening I’ve had Nick panicking that the baby’s coming whilst we were doing our weekly shop in the supermarket… Squatting and breathing seems to help, so there I was squatting next to the trolley as he unpacked it; a look of absolute terror on his face. It wouldn’t be the most convenient time if she came now to be honest – I’ve still got 7 days left at work *small dance of joy*, I’m only just coming to the end of 35 weeks so she’d be considered premature… oh and we’re moving next week. Fingers crossed she stays put for a little bit longer!!!
For the other ladies out there going through this, here are some other Braxton Hicks “cures”:
– A warm bath
– Peeing; it’s thought that having a full bladder can trigger them
– Lying down on your left side
– Remaining hydrated; it’s thought that dehydration can trigger
– Rub your Bump!
So as well as the squatting like a crazy person in the supermarket, I’ve had a couple of other embarrassing moments that have occurred this week that I thought I would share. Both hold a useful or important message:
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: Be Aware
On Saturday morning at 3am I awoke with a terrible headache and was convinced I had carbon monoxide poisoning (thank you BBC Breakfast for implanting an extra worry into my head). After a quick Google I was even more convinced, so I woke Nick up and asked him to search for our carbon monoxide detector… 40 minutes later he found it underneath our bed in a box. Safe. Turns out it was just a headache (and the start of some Braxton Hicks contractions), but to read more about carbon monoxide poisoning and awareness please check out the lovely Cupcake Mumma’s blog post, as it’s really important that you don’t buy a detector and then stash it away somewhere never to be seen again…well, until you wake up panicking at 3am.
Be careful what you read on public transport
On Saturday we went up to Balham for lunch with some friends (and a delicious lunch it was too – thank you Anna and Rob!). My midwife had given me lots of reading material, and I decided to take this on the train for something to do. The train was busy. Ridiculously busy. I started off my educational journey by reading about massage during pregnancy (sounds lovely), and then “how to move your baby into the right position for birth”. Fine. The next leaflet, however, was “Taking care of your perineum: Perineum massage”… Cue odd looks from fellow passengers and a rather red-faced me. Oh Bridget.
If anyone has any tips for Braxton Hicks contractions please do tweet me or comment below. Oh, and I shall leave you with a lovely photo of Fozzy Bear wearing a nappy; Nick was practising this evening!
Hannah
| Happy Baby Fozzy! |
Ah a lovely post! Thanks for mentioning my blog! At least you had an alarm unlike me! All sorted now. Re braxton hicks, just another thing to ride out I’m afraid but perfect for practising those breathing techniques! I have an irritated uterus which meant I got them quite frequently and sometimes painfully thinking I was going into labour how embarrassing to be told that on the ward Pah! Xxx
Not a problem 🙂
Irritated uterus sounds painful! Breathing techniques are definitely being practised!!! xxx
Haha although the perineum thing is embarrassing I do recommend using a cream pre child birth as I did was so paranoid about tearing. I didn’t tear at all, only a few grazes. Although my pushing stage took 2 hours so her slowness in coming out probably helped!
It was more the reading it on the train that was embarrassing 🙂