Scary Friday

This week was the hardest week of my pregnancy so far!For the first time in 7 months I felt truly scared and exhausted. Itching grew and grew more and red spots spread all over my body. My bed became a battle field and sleeping a nightmare. Needless to say, I hardly had any sleep. All parts of my body touching the bed would burn, turn red and itch.

I was not sure what was happening, there were a bunch of possible explanations:a simple food allergy, an allergic reaction to detergent, bed bugs, dust mites, and of course cholestasis, which was the scariest of all.

I created an attack plan, that included yogurt, garlic, aloe vera gel, multiple organic lotions, cold shower. I changed my diet, no more eggs and nuts. I washed all my bed linens and clothes at a high temperature with a super hypoallergenic organic detergent. I started wearing only 100% cotton stuff. Not sure which one has worked but my itching decreased a little during the day, with no change at night.

Then I had my doctor's appointment on Friday. When I mentioned about my itching and showed my body to the doctors, they got worried that it could be cholestasis. They sent me to have an urgent blood test and asked me to wait at the hospital for the results because in case I had cholestasis they wanted to hospitalize me for 2 days to monitor the baby (gasp!). In case you are curious about what this is here's a link but in general it can be dangerous for the baby
http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancycomplications/cholestasispregnancy.html

There I was, by myself, very tired on a Friday night after about a wait of 3 hours, trying to calm my self down, hoping that the baby is fine, thinking I should call someone in case I'm going to be hospitalized and realizing I have no one in Brussels to call (claude was in Strasbourg this week), a very unpleasant feeling.

Anyway, my blood test came and it was negative. So I was deeply relieved. But then I was like, OK, what's going on with my body then. The doctor gave me an anti-allergy pill, which was not tested on pregnant women. So I'm hesitating. My next plan of action is to buy an anti-dust mite bed cover, because there's definitely something going on at night. I still have barely any sleep at night but at least I know that my blueberry is fine.

So on blueberry related news, that day, I also had my ultrasound. He was moving all over the place as usual. He's right on average in terms of his weight (already 1.5 kg), lenght, size of his head, etc. I love that he's average (I'm right there with you Kate). Just his belly circumference was on the 80th percentile, which made me really laugh. So we have an average baby with a big belly :) All his organs are functioning fine.

And another happy note: Remember the lovely midwives I met and who told me that unfortunately they were all booked for April. They called me back, the young one told me that they had a meeting and she fought for me (so sweet!!!) and  they accepted me :) So I was so relieved and happy. I have another appointment with them in 2 weeks. Now I know that I will have a very sweet midwife who will follow me throughout my pregnancy and after :) and may teach me about hypnobirth!

Woww, this was my longest entry so far. Thanks for reading until the end...

And also a special thanks to Bente for letting me know of cholestasis and reminding that I should be taking my itching seriously.