I wake almost every morning to an increasingly familiar sight. Last nights clothes strewn across the floor, the sheets crumpled, the pillows laying half-way down the bed. Oh yes ladies and gents, there has indeed been a lot of action between my sheets of late, though not, I hasten to add, of the most exciting nature.
I cannot sleep, for love, nor money at this precise moment in time. Despite sharing my slumber space with two giant pillows, two cushions propped between my legs, (to ease the backache) and a specially wedged shape foamy thing, I spend the entire night tossing and turning. I’m getting out of bed, sitting, drinking water and squirming like an irritable toddler all night long. And the main culprit for my lack of sleep has nothing to do with enormous bump. Nope. It’s my naughty legs that are at fault.
You see, try as I might, (and I do try) I simply cannot keep my legs still. I’m overcome with the urge to wriggle them, or kick them, or just generally keep them moving—and a lot of the time I’m not even aware that I’m doing it, it’s as though they have developed minds of their own. It would seem however, that despite the randomness of this complaint I am not alone in my suffering. In fact I’ve since learnt that up to 15% of all pregnant women develop this complaint in their third trimesters and there is even a name for this condition. It’s called, ‘Restless Leg Syndrome.’ Don’t laugh!!
‘Restless Leg Syndrome.’ Sounds totally made up doesn’t it?! But I shit you not, it’s up there with all the other syndromes, (‘Unable to stop shoe-shopping syndrome,’ why has that one not been invented, huh?!) And it is just another weird and wonderful delight of pregnancy. Which brings me neatly to my chosen topic of the day.
Today, not only in the interest of generating as much sympathy as possible from you lovely, lovely people, but also to amuse you greatly, I thought I’d share some completely bizarre and random facts that I have learnt regarding growing babies and all that pregnancy entails!
So here goes . . .
Number one: (And I’m only listing this to set the record straight for those who didn’t know.) Morning sickness lasts all day.
Sorry, that one wasn’t all that amusing or interesting at all was it?! I’ll try to do better with my second.
Number two: According to a TIME magazine article published in 1945, the longest pregnancy on record lasted for an entire 375 days (12 Months, 1 week and 3 days) - Poor, poor woman!! (Please god, don’t let this happen to us!) Amazingly the bubba in question only weighed 6lb something!
Number three: More babies are conceived in November and December than any other months! (Make of this what you will!)
Number four: Apparently (and this is really quite disgusting so I apologise if it makes you feel sick!) some pople actually drink urine from pregnant women as it helps to build better immune systems.
Number five: The first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by the Egyptians (and I’m not sure how?!) in 2000 B.C
Number six: During pregnancy, the average woman’s uterus expands up to five hundred times it’s normal size. (And still you cannot balance on it for fun!)
Number seven: Babies born in May are on average 200 grams heavier than babies born in other months.
Number eight: According to Chinese custom, sex during pregnancy is absolutely forbidden.
Any other random facts? Send em my way!
In the meantime I’m off to eat some ice!
Steph x
