SPD – Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction. In other words, the condition making my life incredibly difficult at the moment! More on that later!

25 weeks pregnant now and I’m stoked to know that our little bubba would be considered viable outside the womb! I’m being kicked CONSTANTLY throughout the day and night which I’m trying to stay positive about! Baby is approaching 36cm from head to toe and is almost a whole kg! Apparently though because my baby is such a whopper for it’s gestation, it is a little bigger than this!

As for me, I am S-U-F-F-E-R-I-N-G! I have just been diagnosed with this SPD which basically means pain in the joints that make up your pelvic girdle. This happens because the ligaments which are normally keeping your pelvic bone aligned and in place become too relaxed a little too soon before birth meaning your pelvic joints aren’t being as well supported and become unstable. This would usually happen closer to the birth but it seems I’ve had it since around 18 weeks!

Apparently for me this has been caused by a number of reasons.

1. I am hyper-flexible. You would think this a great thing! But no, it’s been causing me problems all my life. I can never strengthen the muscles around my joints enough to get them to be truly stable.
2. My baby is gigantic. Bubs is growing too big, too quickly for my body to keep up and nicely, slowly stretch out.
3. My body has responded a little too well to the ‘relaxin’ hormone and so my ligaments have gone a little too stretchy and loose.

So now, I am wearing a support belt around my waist to try and hold my pelvis together 😐 As well as a tubi-grip to hold my 1 inch abdominal separation together. Just gets better and betterrrrrr! No, seriously, it’s fine. I’m just grateful to be carrying this little miracle and I’ll deal with whatever comes my way with a smile (or a grimace!) on my face! 🙂

Work is getting incredibly difficult due to the fact that the SPD is making it very painful to walk and stand. And as a scrub nurse, that’s pretty much my entire job! I have had to stop exercising with weights at the gym and can barely walk further than 100m which is soul destroyingggg. I need to start getting in the pool! However on a positive note, the vomiting has decreased to only around 2 times per week (slightly more if I have a bad night’s sleep), so it’s not all bad!

Honestly, I thought I’d be one of those girls who would love being pregnant. It has come as a shock to find that it’s not quite what I thought it would be. I’m envious of those who breeze through their pregnancy and love it and I feel completely compassionate to those who have a rough time with it.

For now, I’m just taking it day by day and embracing the sexy life with my tubi-grip, belt and thigh high compression stockings!