The Terrible Twitches......

So, I'm 38 and a half weeks pregnant and have finally reached the 'I just want it all to be over' stage.

Before the moan starts I should say that I know I've been incredibly lucky with my pregnancy and have endured very few of the symptoms that can occur. For one thing I didn't have any sickness and have not put on any weight at all over the last nine months (don't get too jealous, I wasn't that small to start with). No back pain, indigestion, varicose veins, high blood pressure, nothing.

But what I have been experiencing is what is has become known in our house as 'The Twitches'.....

It started around month four when I'd be sitting quite happily and my right leg would start to feel odd. It's very difficult to explain exactly what I mean by odd as it's not a sensation that I've ever encountered before but the result of this 'oddness' was that my leg would twitch periodically.

Now to begin with this was a source of amusement (especially to DBF) and was cured by either shifting position in the chair or, if particularly bad, getting up and walking around for a bit. It was also intermittent and I could go days before experiencing an attack so it wasn't something I worried about too much. How wrong could I be?

It didn't take too long before my left leg joined in the fun, the attacks became more frequent and I'd have difficulty sitting or lying down for more than 15 - 20 mins at a time. As you can imagine this is not a particularly useful state of play and it certainly curtailed any leisure activities. Worse, it started being a problem when I was trying to sleep as there was no escaping The Twitching. The only good thing was that DBF was finding it less amusing when he was being kicked at random intervals during the night.

Work was also a nightmare as I'm a Web Developer so my daily routine consists of sitting down at a PC. I ended up having to go for short walks about once an hour just to cope with it so my Maternity Leave starting was a huge relief.

So, for the last few weeks the situation has gotten steadily worse. I've managed with the help of six cushions to find a position I can sit in the armchair and cross stitch which has been a godsend but it involves leaning forward slightly so I always have some backpain by the end of the day. I can lie down for short periods and maybe, if I'm lucky, get a couple of hours sleep at a time but for some reason lately when I'm lying down I also get The Twitches in my right arm. This did lead to a rather amusing incident (well at least for me) a week or so ago when I broke the monotony of kicking DBF during the night by punching him in the head but on the whole it's a total nightmare.

I do try to see the funny side and the fact that, apart from walking around, the only known cure is to spend time on all fours (this moves the baby from whatever nerve endings she's squashing) does help but the amusement value of that wears very thin very quickly (and is a killer on the hips).

Still, I have a maximum of four days left of this torture as I'm due to be induced on Tuesday if baby doesn't make an appearance of her own accord so I guess I'll tough it out. The only thing that really bothers me at 5 in the morning is the thought of what life will be like if the baby comes out and The Twitches don't go away......