I don't know if she'd hate me mentioning it but I found out today that a very dear friend had a miscarriage just yesterday and while obviously it creates a lot of sadness, it feels so poignant that it coincides with the day that I don't have to worry about that happening anymore.
Obviously things can still go wrong, but it's no longer completely devoid of hope that tragedy can be avoided with a bit of premonition and medical intervention.
I just feel so overwhelmingly grateful to be here and so very sad that my friend is not.
What miraculous thing occurs at 24 weeks you might be asking yourself?
In short, my baby has a legal right to live.
Before today, if I'd gone into labour it would have been up to a doctor to weigh up whether my baby's life and it's perceived quality of life was worth a slice of the departments money and chances are that it wouldn't have been. My baby would have been made comfortable and left to die.
Now, the doctor must do everything possible to enable my baby to live.
It's not all happy endings from here on out though, but my baby jumping from having very little chance to live to having over a 50% chance to live just overnight is such a huge relief.
The chance of living with a disability due to prematurity also starts to decline considerably, I think that its 20% at the moment.
The next few weeks remain to be crucial, so my aim is now set on reaching the third trimester which is 28 weeks I think and at this point the premature survival rate is comparatively very high and risk of disability very low.
As for how this week has been in terms of the pregnancy, it's been alright. She's still wiggling like a demon child and particularly enjoys kicking off as I'm trying to sleep. My dreams are still vivid, my boobs are still huge and my coccyx still kills if I sit on it for too long.
I think I've popped quite a lot in the belly department too.
There are a couple of new things. The other day I had a persistent sharp spotting pain in my anus which James assumed was a pile but I found that gently forcing a bit of a bowel movement alleviated it completely. Also since yesterday if been feeling a bit too warm.
The bestest thing is that I have now actually seen my belly move! No feet or hands poking out yet, but it looked as if an invisible person flicked my skin.
Weight wise I'm a big fat heffer and have now gained a total of 17lbs but reassuringly my yoga friend has gained 14lbs so that's not too bad.
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