It's been medically confirmed...

I am a pain in the ass. What many of you have suspected for years has finally been confirmed.

Baby/uterus/pelvic bone is squashing my sciatic nerve and giving my left leg horrible pain and making my left knee give out unexpectedly, repeatedly throughout the course of a day. And let me tell you, not having experience child birth yet, this is the worst pain I have ever, EVER had. I was crying as I was crawling up the stairs last night to go to bed.

It all started out as a cramp in my left butt cheek a couple weeks ago. My rear had always given me troubles with cramped muscles, so I didn't think anything of it. Then yesterday, I got up from my desk in the afternoon and started walking towards the plotter room and then WHAM! An excruciating pain shot down my butt, into my left thigh and down to around my knee, which promptly gave out. It was awful. I didn't think much of it though. Thought maybe it was the shoes I was wearing or I'd just been sitting too long or something.

But it did it multiple times when Nathan and I were walking Ghost last night. After we got home, I sat and did our taxes and when I got up the shots in the butt were coming fast and furious. I started walking up the stairs for bed and made it about halfway before I had to put my hands on the steps to help myself up. By the time I reached the top I was crying from the pain. Not sobbing, but just my eyes leaking tears because it hurt so much.

I managed to sleep okay though, with only a couple episodes when I was rolling over. I'm trying to keep myself moving today, getting up every hour to walk around the office. I'm not doing too badly, but I've had a couple, umm, moments.

The good news is that our midwife appointment this morning went really well. I got some good advice about the sciatica and supplements and prenatal classes. My blood pressure was lower than it was last time, but still the "normal" range for me, which is high normal. We determined that their scale is wonky because my weight changed by at least 2 or 3 pounds every time we tried putting the scale in a different place on the floor. And I got to hear Bean's heartbeat again. Well, mostly I heard it kicking very insistently at the Doppler, like it was pissed that we were invading its space. Not just one kick, but multiple ones in a row. Apparently, Bean is nestled quite nicely in the middle of my uterus (which is also poking out nicely) and having a whale of a time. Nadine said that by the next appointment (middle of April) I will be able to feel the kicks. I think I'm going to be in for a very kicky, punchy pregnancy.... Hopefully yoga and homeopathic remedies will get the sciatica under control so I don't have to hobble about AND be kicked in the gut repeatedly. =D