Scares
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At three in the morning, the palms of my hands and soles of my feet are itching furiously. I'm still itchy from scabies (it takes a month or so after you kill the mites for them to work their way out of your skin), but this is new.
It's one of the things you're meant to look out for: a potential symptom of pre-eclampsia, an issue of placental origin that could cause breakdown of my liver and kidneys, among other things.
I double check that it's not go-in-immediately urgent, get back to sleep, and head in to get it checked out once the hospital opens in the morning.
My blood pressure is fine, there's no protein in my urine, and baby's heart rate (continuously monitored for several minutes with two big straps around my belly) varies in a normal range from 140-170 bpm.
The blood test results will take overnight, but as far as the immediate tests, I seem to be fine. But now there's something else on my mind.
"Can you tell," I ask the midwife idly as she puts on the monitoring straps, "is this hard bit here the head?"
I poke the hard lump that's been hanging out above my belly button for the last few weeks. It's been nice to be able to feel the baby so consistently, a way to connect.
