Pregnancy – Week 35

Week… 35

Baby is the size of… a Canary Melon

Highlight of the Week… I was able to work from home this week, which was amazing for managing my pain (see more on that below). Working from home enabled me to slow down and give my body much-needed attention. While the process is frustrating, I’m incredibly grateful to be in an employment situation where I’m given the flexibility to take care of myself.

Frustration of the Week… I’m about to get real and I have to preface this with: I’m not looking for sympathy or pity. I just feel like women gloss over this part of pregnancy or it’s dismissed as “well, that’s pregnancy.” So, I’m sharing. Don’t worry – it’s not gross.

My entire pregnancy has been riddled with physical pain. While I am incredibly grateful to have had little to no medical issues thus far, the physical side of growing a human has been awful. The past few weeks have been particularly rough, and there’s a reason for it. In my last ultrasound, we learned that baby is in a transverse position, causing my uterus to stretch to the sides, but also, baby’s butt frequently settles in my pelvis into a breech position. So, at any given time during the day, the baby is either in yoga boat pose position or curled horizontally across my body. This puts a tremendous amount of pressure upon my hips, pelvis, and lower back all day and night long.

The pain reached a new level this past weekend. I had an episode that was equal parts painful, frustrating, and scary. I awoke in the middle of the night with pains similar to Braxton Hicks contractions. At this point, I’ve had a few so the sensation was familiar. Tightening through my back and across my abdomen, except this time, it felt like Wolverine had dug his claws into my left side and was tearing apart my muscles. This continued on and off for roughly 4 hours at irregular intervals. We contemplated going to the hospital but there were no other bodily changes to accompany the pain (e.g. fever, blood, etc) and baby maintained normal movement throughout. Eventually, the episodes stopped but I spent all of Saturday and Sunday in recovery mode.

I met with my doctor early Monday morning and after describing what happened, she explained that all the pain and discomfort is normal for pregnancy, in general, but also to be expected with the position of baby. Then she prescribed that, in addition to my chiropractic care, I see a prenatal physical therapist.

By the end of the week, I’m happy to report I had a comprehensive pain management care plan. Unfortunately, it means I’ll have to miss more work, but at this point, baby and mommy come first. I will be seeing the chiropractor twice a week and the physical therapist twice a week starting next week. I was also given marching orders for exercises and stretches I need to do daily.

At the end of the day, I’m grateful for many things. One, despite the discomfort, baby and I are healthy. Two, there’s a reason for the discomfort and that reason is manageable. And finally, three, I have a plan now and my physicians are all communicating with each other.

In a nutshell, pregnancy is super painful but there’s no reason to suffer in silence. Talk to your doctor.

Eating a lot of… Fage with granola and basically anything else in sight. I didn’t gain any weight in between my last two check-ups and so, while I’m eating healthy, I’m making sure I’m eating enough.

Cute Thing Hubby Did This Week… Throughout all the pain issues, hubs has struggled with his inability to fix it. The sweetest moment came while we were in the doctor’s office. Typically, he’s very quiet during our appointments, just taking in everything that’s being discussed. But this time, he spoke up and I could hear all the frustration in his voice when he asked, “Is there anything we can do at home to help with her pain? Is there anything I can do?” So incredibly sweet. (For the record, I asked this same question of my chiropractor and physical therapists and they both gave me exercises that he can help me with.)

A Tidbit… Aside from all the above, we are getting soooo excited for Baby Lawrence to get here. I can’t believe how quickly the weeks are passing by!

We’re also insane people and did our maternity photos this week while it was 115* outside! Good grief! But we can’t wait to get the pictures back in the next week or so.