Well I'm Couch-Bound, Mama

So much for my uneventful last month of pregnancy. Monday night, while driving home from work, I started feeling sharp shooting pains that began at my right hip and continued down my leg to my calf. I got home early, so I asked Graciela to stay a bit longer so that I could take a quick, warm bath in the hopes that the muscles would relax and the pain would subside. The bath seemed to help, so I sent Graciela home and went back to playing with Brice. I put him to sleep and I could feel the pain as it returned to my right side. By the time Joel got home an hour later, I was limping around the house and couldn't make it up or down the steps. I tried getting on my hands and knees so Joel could massage my hip. I tried lying down on the floor with my knees up at a 90 degree angle. I tried walking around the house. Nothing worked. Finally, I gave up and went to bed. The pain became worse throughout the night and by about 1am, I was waking up every hour to get up and move.

Tuesday morning I called in to work to say I would be working from home. The pain was now traveling up my side and I was starting to feel some good contractions. I took a shower and had about two contractions while I stood under the warm water. We called the doctor and she said to try to sit still with my feet elevated. By 1pm, the contractions were coming with some regularity and I was full on uncomfortable. Another call to the doc and we were told to go to labor and delivery at the hospital for some monitoring.

We showed up at the hospital and the nice nurses there got me all hooked up to the machines. The contractions were coming every 9-11 minutes but were not getting any closer or more intense. An internal showed that I was not dilated or effaced, so the contractions were not progressing into true labor. After two hours, we were sent home and told to continue to sit and rest.

Wednesday we went back to see Dr. Pendyala for a quickie growth ultrasound and appointment. The ultrasound tech went quickly, but we were able to get a brief glimpse of our little girl. At 35-36 weeks, she was measuring at 5lbs, 12 oz. Perfectly average! Her lungs were functioning, my fluid levels were perfect, her kidneys appeared to be working and she was head down and happy. Dr. Pendyala was happy with the results. She basically instructed me to stay at home for the remainder of the week. We'll see her again on Monday and hopefully at that point, she'll green light me to go back to work. While its very relaxing being at home, I'm already a little bored and the fact that I can't do much doesn't make this "time off" very fun at all.

I'll hit the 36 week mark tomorrow and the doctors feel that if I can make it one more week, the baby will be good to go if she decides to come early. I'm all for letting her bake but this discomfort is... well... uncomfortable (and as I am typing this, I'm having a contraction!). So, we've got 25 days to go. Tick, tock, tick, tock.