Ever suffered with heartburn?

Heartburn

I thought it was just something my grandad spoke about, he would complain about heartburn after eating a pastry or eating too late. I thought it was something he had made up until I became pregnant. In December heartburn reared its ugly head, I started taking Gaviscon and chewing tums tablets. Have you ever tasted Gaviscon? one of the worst tasting things I’ve ever tasted, yuck! According to NHS “as many as 8 out of 10 women experience indigestion at some point during their pregnancy.”

What is heartburn?

Heartburn is a strong, burning sensation in the chest. The burning feeling is your stomach acid passing from your stomach to your oesophagus.

What causes heartburn?

As with most things in pregnancy it is the hormonal changes that get the blame for this! then further through the pregnancy, as the womb grows it presses on the stomach and causes heartburn on a greater scale.

Heartburn gave me a short holiday!

Lucky for me heartburn gave me a holiday but then this month it came back with a vengeance! It doesn’t seem to matter what it is I eat it’s literally anything that passes to my stomach, so the advice of removing foods that trigger it for me doesn’t work, even my vitamins can trigger it. I hit the Gaviscon hard it would ease the symptoms for a small amount of time, so then I tried the tablet form to find out that quite a lot of the tablets contain a lot of sugar, so chewing them before bed wasn’t a great idea. I tried Ranitidine as recommended by a friend who is an obstetrician. I hate taking any medication so I was worried about the amounts of Gaviscon I was taking, I was advised by the midwife to swig it from the bottle as there was no risk to the baby, but still it didn’t sit right.

Struggling to sleep

Heartburn was taking its toll. The feeling of fullness is at times unbearable, eating small portions and then feeling as if you have eaten two Christmas dinners, feeling like you need to burp all the time and then the nauseousness. Going to bed at night and struggling to sleep  as every time I laid down I wanted to be sick due the stomach acid wanting to make an appearance or the feeling of a really tight knot in your chest which basically feels like your dinner has just got stuck in your chest with nowhere else to go, the joys of pregnancy hormones.

Midwife appointment at 28 weeks

When the midwife asked if there had been any problems in the last few weeks I replied “only heartburn which I really want to punch in the face, along with calf cramps and restless legs in the evening!”  she laughed. Her advice with the heartburn was to drink a glass of milk before consuming any food. I don’t really drink milk the occasional bit in tea, so I hoped almond milk and coconut milk would have the same effect. The idea is to line the oesophagus and the stomach before eating to reduce the risk of the acid reflux. Guess what it works!!! No more Gaviscon just cartons of almond milk a day instead!

Baby check

When you visit the midwife they do all your usual checks, pee test, blood test, baby’s heart rate and then abdominal palpations to see what position the baby is in. On my last appointment I had been having some pain in my coccyx which still comes and goes but a lot better, I found at the previous appointment the baby was back to back meaning its spine was on mine so just adding a bit more pressure to my back. This appointment the midwife was palpitating away and then looked a little concerned, she said, “so the good news is, oh sorry there isn’t any bad news!” sigh of relief from me! But the baby’s head was down and now has turned onto its side, so all good. We went back to my record book where she started to plot on the antenatal grow chart. It’s a chart to plot the rough estimate of the baby’s height with weeks and weight. I watched as she plotted the next cross which was over the 90th centile line!! I asked if that was why she had a confused look on her face? her reply was “this is an estimation as to be honest I can’t work out what are your abdominal muscles and what is the baby as your abs are hard as the baby!” My inner warrior shouted YES, my abs are still there! So according to my chart between 26-28 weeks, my baby has roughly grown 3cm in height so is roughly 29cm.

My inner warrior shouted “YES, my abs are still there!” So according to my chart between 26-28 weeks, my baby has roughly grown 3cm in height so is roughly 29cm.

28-30 weeks

I am officially all butt & belly, during these last two weeks I feel it’s the first time I’ve started to feel ok about my body, having a baby bump rather than a belly that is neither here nor there is so much easier to smile about!

On Monday (just over 29 weeks) I felt for the very first time proper movement, a swift jab, elbow or kick to the ribs whilst I was visiting my gramps. The baby seems active in the evening and I could sit there for ages mesmerized by the movement of my belly, but the little monkey every time I feel it move I look down at my belly & he/she chooses to not move! It is such an odd feeling every morning I wake up & for a split second, I forget I’m carrying a small person around with me but the whole journey really is magical, feeling the movement, watching the growth and hearing the little ones heart beat allows me to slowly fall in love.

30 weeks preggers and I’ve felt extremely tired this week, possibly due to my physically demanding job along with early mornings and late nights or could be flitting through eBay, amazon etc for baby bits!!

 Being active

Muay Thai

Training is still going well. I have sessions where one week something feels odd & then the next week its fine again, so just going with the flow. For example, at 28 weeks throwing hooks and elbows when hitting pads just didn’t feel right it felt uncomfortable to twist, then at just before 30 weeks I hit pads for 30 minutes and was able to do everything.

Strength and conditioning

I have started Strength & conditioning again having had about 3-4 weeks off. I have a new program to work with and each session is around 45 minutes to an hour.

Aerial

Aerial we are still adapting which is good and it very much lies Muay Thai some weeks things feel good and other weeks they don’t.

Yoga

Certain things in yoga feel odd now so beginning to adapt poses like forward folds by taking my legs wider to make room for the bump, stepping forward from down dog I have to take my foot wide. I can still jump forward but when I do I end up like a frog, which makes me chuckle.

So with regards to training I just take it as it comes, if I’m tired I have a day off, if something doesn’t feel right perhaps it means the baby has moved so I adapt or don’t do it. Listening to my body is key.

It’s all starting to feel a little more real

Feeling the baby move a little more now & slowly putting baby things together for the arrival with thanks to daddy baby now has a cot & storage boxes built, ready & waiting. Occasionally I feel excited and other times I feel freaked out that there are 10 weeks left!!

Stay tuned

Please feel free to write any comments below, I’d love to hear what you have to say, your thoughts and opinions.

Don’t forget you can follow me on social media – Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Check the home page for links, or you could always join me at any of our classes in Surrey. Contact me for more information via the website.

Thank you for sharing my journey

Sheree

Are you pregnant? fancy joining me for pregnancy yoga?

I have a 5-week course starting on the 8th March in Surrey, feel free to contact me for more information.