I am now 22 weeks pregnant, so how am I feeling? Not too bad apart from being tired all the time but this is down to an inherited blood condition I have called Thalassemia trait (cheers dad!). It is nothing serious, what it mean is that my red blood cells are much smaller than normal so carry less oxygen and iron around my body. I am basically constantly anaemic and there is noting I can do about it because too much iron can actually be harmful since my body cannot digest it. Apart from the constant tiredness I am feeling pretty ok and no I can’t really keep myself awake with caffeine because being pregnant you cannot dose yourself with that, it can be harmful to your baby. There are so many things I cannot do or cannot eat whilst being pregnant. Before I was pregnant I didn’t even know they mattered. I had to cut out a lot of food I enjoyed eating but I am not actually bothered about the boozing at all. I love eating raw fish in Sushi, I love eating seafood, I love eating medium rare steak and I love eating runny eggs but NOPE, not anymore! Being pregnant means they are a no no due to the bacteria that “may” be present in those foods, the bacteria is harmful to the baby.
Apart from adjusting to food during pregnancy there are other things I have learned along the way. Growing a human inside your belly does a lot of changes to your body. Such as aches and pains, I walk slower and get out of breath really easily even though I still do a light jog every morning followed by pregnancy yoga. From reading my pregnancy book some women may even experience vision changes during pregnancy. Your vision may become blurry so you would need to wear glasses to help you to see. This apparently tends to happen from 20 weeks onwards but I personally have not experienced this yet. My Vision still seems to be the same but I definitely feel I cannot wear contact lenses for as long. However, wearing glasses does have its downsides at the moment because I find my body temperature is constantly quite high therefore I sweat more and glasses are more prone to sliding off… very annoying !
Me at 22 Weeks Pregnant
For all the changes that are happening we only have one thing to thank, HORMONES! Yes, the vision thing is caused by hormones and for some women their vision may return back to normal after birth but for others it may be permanent meaning you will need to wear glasses forever. That was something Kimberley Walsh experienced when she was pregnant hence she was picked by Specavers as the ambassador for this years awards. The best advice I can give to any readers out there who are pregnant is, keep a track of your vision during your pregnancy because it may be a gradual change or it may be a sudden change but as soon as you notice anything different then pop into your local opticians ASAP!
Only your opticians can help you and give you all the right examinations. I think there are a lot of pregnancy symptoms which are not that common so people tend to forget them or not be aware at all. Just like me, before I fell pregnant I did not even know vision is something that could be effected. My sister-in-law told me when she was pregnant with my niece she had really itchy hands but again this is something that is not common but it happened to her. After all the pregnancy moaning I am looking forward to meeting this little bugger in April 🙂