I WAS not expecting it when it happened. I kept blaming it on the fact that for the first time in my working career I didn’t take a break over the Christmas season, so it must have been the weight of the entire year that was weighing me down. Had to be.
But weeks passed and this heavy weight kept getting heavier and heavier and eventually – as I am prone to doing, I had a social media rant. (There’s some education to be had on those platforms, on a rather serious note). At this stage my pelvic bone was also showing me flames and I had begun to waddle, I was probably a month away from the third trimester mark.
I found out about these two products, Slow-Mag and the Vitaforce Schlehen Blackthorn Berry Elixir. These were recommendations from friends and family online and I figured, why not try them, heaven knows I needed a boost. So one of my friends gave me what was left of her Vitaforce from when she needed to make Jungle Juice. I drank it like medicine and felt a difference each time, but I started feeling a bit of the first trimester illness setting in, more especially headaches, nausea and heart burn. It took me a week or two to link the two. Each time I had the Vitaforce I fell ill, so I stopped taking it.
I don’t know if it’s just me but I found both products, just under R150, to be ridiculously expensive. Anyway the more I complained about my pelvic girdle pain the more people insisted I try the Slow-Mag. My cousin was quick to let me know that she enjoyed the effervescent tablets more – I think it comes in 3 forms; liquid, effervescent and tablets. So I chose the fizzies and have been loving it since, I’m on my second container. I even asked my gynae about it because I was enjoying it so much and she said yes and of course advised I also take some Panado if the pain persists; luckily I’ve got a low tolerance for medication so Panado does wonders for me.
I won’t lie and say it has taken away all of the fatigue, the pain on most days is handled by the magnesium supplement which I try not to have too often, and never more than once a day. The fatigue on the other hand, I feel it lifting but it’s never really gone. Anyone who calls to ask me how I’m doing gets the honest answer of just how inexplicably tired I am. One of the mothers on my Facebook did mention though that after baby number one, fatigue is the order of the day. The gynae also said that this time around I’m trying to care for both me and an over active toddler so I’m bound to be tired.
I’m proud of myself though. I’ve only cried once over just how tired I am and I haven’t been sick this pregnancy. Just one down day due to the fatigue. However with Bukhanye I probably spent a total of one month away from work because of flu related illnesses. I remember being booked off for two straight weeks when I was carrying him. But I was never tired.
If you guys have any other advice on how to combat fatigue during pregnancy (even though I have a month-and-a-half to go), please do share in the comment section below, you may never know who’s reading and needs it.