Disco Inferno

I'm at the end of the second trimester of my pregnancy and other than there still being no sign of the Glow, so far everything is going great. Ignoring the first trimester sickness and lethargy hurdles, I've been very lucky not to be affected by lots of the other complaints that can come for someone in my 'delicate condition'. You know the ones, rapid weight gain, stretch marks, constipation and haemorrhoids – which coincidentally happen to be all the ones you really don't want to hear about. But I've still got three long months to go, so I'm not quite counting my chickens just yet.

I've only got one annoying symptom and that is the dreaded heartburn! Pregnancy hormones relax all the ligaments and valves in your body to prepare for birth, but unfortunately the result of that is stomach acids seeping up in to the oesophagus causing a burning sensation from the breast bone up to the back of the throat. Its worse when you don't have gravity on your side, like when you'd like to lay down and go to sleep – so now I sleep propped up on three pillows, practically towering over Hubby. Whenever it strikes though, I try to be mindful (read: Hippie new age accepting of all things) and remember that its all part of the journey. But that tends to last about five minutes max before I reach for the Gaviscon or QuickEze. At this point I try to be mindful again but always fail and end up with a mental image of Tricky playing with matches. Or possibly a blow torch... burn, baby, burn.

Then there are the exciting things that make the agony all worth while (I'm told the birthing process relies heavily on this concept too). Tricky is moving more and more every day and has even started settling in to the standard pattern of being rocked to sleep while I'm moving around and then waking up to try out for the gymnastics team as I lay down at night. In the last few weeks Hubby has been placing his hands on my belly and then looking a little dejected when he couldn't feel anything... until last night! Tricky had the hiccups and it allowed me to position Hubby's hands right where the movement was centred. The grin that spread across his face instantly was one of the most awesome sights I've ever seen. Next up I'll have to get a box of Maltesers to train Tricky to kick on cue.