Oh The Joys Of Pregnancy

What a week!

I have been having pain in my underbelly and in my pelvis for a while now. But I was just told over and over it was ligament pain from my belly stretching and this was normal. I was told to stretch and it would go away. But Dash just kept getting bigger and bigger and the pain was getting worse. Last Tuesday I was at a networking function and had to be on my feet for over an hour. I shouldn't have gone but there is a lot of pressure at work to go to more of these and I was told - "the job description is the job description regardless if you are pregnant or not". So I went. I knew something was wrong as soon as I got home. That pain I was feeling was now shooting down my pelvis and I felt ill. Wednesday morning I dragged myself to work even though I could hardly get down the steps in the subway. By 9:30 I was in a cab headed to the ER. I was in so much pain I was in tears.  

When a pregnant woman walks into the ER with pain they are sent to Labor and Delivery. The priority is to check that the baby is okay. I was hooked up to monitors where I got to hear Dash's heart beating for 6 hours (it was lovely). The other monitor was monitoring my contractions. Yes I was having them. Every 3-4 minutes. But there was no pain, just discomfort. I was not dilating but my cervix was thinning. And once again I was told the pain was ligament pain and was given lots of Tylenol and sent home.

The next day I was back at the Midwife's office and back on the monitors. The contractions were now 8 minutes apart and still no dilating so I was not in labor. A relief since it was only 35 weeks. And as for the pain she said again I need to stretch to open my pelvis and it was normal. I finally had enough and said no. This pain was not normal, it was not from the ligaments and I'm quite flexible thank you. I was upset and she finally said that it sounded like PSD and sent me to an orthopedist who specializes with pregnant women. With PSD your pelvic bones become misaligned and can get inflamed and even seperate. So off I went today and was told my pubic bone is inflamed and was placed on bed rest until I deliver. This is after finding out on Friday that the baby is going to be GINORMOUS, according to the sonogram, if I go to 40 weeks! So much for my theory that I have just been really bloated and the baby is small. Dash's heartbeat was also a little too high so I ended up on the monitors for the third day in a row. The heartbeat settled and I was sent home. 

The most frustrating part about all this is that I was just being told this was normal and a part of pregnancy and "oh the joys of pregnancy, smile Natalie it's okay this is how it is." No I'm not smiling and fuck off because really I'm in pain. It was making me furious because even though this is my first pregnancy I know not being able to walk is NOT normal. I should not be in pain when I lay down to go to bed or need help to walk down steps. It was very upsetting and today when I was leaving the orthopedist's office I wanted to hug her because I felt so grateful that someone was taking me seriously and not lumping my pain in with just "the joys of pregnancy". 


Anyway here we are now. I'm going to finish the week at work and go from there. Bed rest is not something I'm looking forward to. Especially since it will eat into my maternity leave so I will have less time at home with the baby. That really bothers me. I really hope Dash comes soon so that is not the case. I think I'm giving the baby a week and then I may have to start downing castor oil, walking around with a lavender and jasmin scented candle, eat spicy food for every meal and jump my husband's bones every night to kick start labor. On the bright side I'll have time to finish Game of Thrones.