My First Pregnancy: Week 27

I believe my stomach grew much bigger in this week. I just felt too big all of a sudden and everything on me was bothering me, including my clothes. I mean, I wear loose pregnancy clothing, but sometimes all of it feels too much.

My lower backache increased and I can’t walk for long periods of time. This can be very disturbing especially when I feel like going shopping on a weekend and maximum I can walk through the mall is 2 hours and then my feet would start hurting. I can’t say I feel like I’m in my happy place right now. I feel big and… that’s all actually. I just feel huge and I can’t believe I can hardly reach my toes. I am not able to paint my toenails anymore which can be frustrating during these summer months.

During this week was the first time I had leg cramp. I never had it in my life before and I had no idea how painful it was. While I was sleeping, all of a sudden I felt very strong cramp in my right calf. It was so painful that I screamed and started shaking my leg, trying to release the pain. Luckily, my husband jumped right away to help me, told me to stop shaking my leg (which was difficult as I was in panic mode), then he straightened my leg, and slightly started pushing my whole foot towards my face (that’s the best I can describe it). He did it few times and pain stopped. I was able to fall asleep again, fearful it might happen again. Luckily, it didn’t. Afterwards I read in pregnancy book I have I should be more active and walk more and not sit or sleep without having my legs elevated. And of course, I shouldn’t sleep on my back but rather on my left or right side with pillow in between my legs. I think, after this painful experience, I will start paying more attention to what they suggest in pregnancy books and how I should avoid possible problems.

Also, in one of the books I am reading, they suggested I should exercise in order to avoid leg cramps.  The best exercise for this is to position myself straight facing a wall. My toes should be approximately 2 feet away from the wall.  With both of my palms open I should press myself against the wall, not moving my feet at all and I should feel muscles in my calves tightening. I should hold myself in that position for 10 seconds and then release it for 5 seconds. Exercise should be repeated 3 times at least, just before going to sleep.

So, I decided to give this exercise a try and started doing every night before I go to sleep. I can happily confirm that I haven’t had leg cramp since, so I guess I’m doing a good job. Of course, I am not sleeping on my back anymore either, but rather on either left or right side with pillow between my legs. It is actually quite comfortable.

Nothing else this significant happened to me in 27th week. Pretty soon I will be entering my third semester, which should be very exciting knowing that baby will soon be here.