Bed rest.

Those two words have always sent a shiver down my spine. I remember there was a woman in our childbirth prep class who had been on modified bed rest from week 12 to week 34 of her pregnancy. That's 6 months of bed rest! I could not handle that. Sure there are times in our life when we are super busy and I crave a day or two of laying around doing nothing, but not days, weeks or months on end of being confined to a bed. I applaud every mom to be out there who has endured bed rest in order to safely bring their child into the world. I am one of those people who does not sit still very well and I think that I would likely need to be sedated to get through weeks of bed rest.

My bed rest is a little bit different...this is due to a back injury. The past few weeks my poor body has taken a beating. I had a horrible cough that wouldn't go away, and actually a few hours after my last post I had a severe asthma attack and ended up at the ER. They gave me some steroids and a nebulizer breathing treatment, and sent me on my way. Over the course of that weekend I had several more asthma attacks. A few days later I visited my family medicine doctor and was given a daily prescription to control the asthma, at least for the rest of the pregnancy. After a few days on that medicine I was just starting to feel like my health was under control when I came down with a cold accompanied by a cough. All weekend I hacked, coughed, sneezed and blew my nose like crazy. Sunday morning I coughed, and while doing so I felt a pop in my back followed by the most intense muscle pain/spasms. I was in agony. I couldn't sit, stand, lay or hardly move without feeling incredible pain. Like, transition labor contraction pain radiating out of the core of my body. I hadn't been in that much pain since birthing M2.

We ended up visiting the ER again, where they diagnosed it as a muscle pull and sent me on my way with prescriptions for muscle relaxers and pain killers. The muscle relaxer did nothing for my pain (the pain pills helped take the edge off a bit), which led me to think they may have misdiagnosed me. Monday morning Mr.P drove me to the family medicine clinic where I was examed more thoroughly by a doctor there. He diagnosed it as a muscle tear, but was able to pinpoint it to the muscle group that weaves over the back of the ribcage. This made sense as to why I was in excrutiating pain whenever I coughed or took a deep breath. He also informed me that sometimes muscle relaxers just don't work for some people. He did give me a good tip that if I press hard against my back to hold the muscles against my rib cage when I breath or cough it does make it a little less painful. Sunday evening and most of yesterday I was pretty much incapacitated. I could hardly walk and getting in/out of bed was miserable. Today I'm still feeling a lot of pain, but I was able to get up and move around the house a little without as much pain.

Luckily Mr.P's company has a benefit that will provide up to 100 hours per year of emergency childcare (we do have a $2 per hour co-pay, but that is nothing). We had the option of sending M2 to a daycare facility or having an in home nanny come to our house to watch her. We opted for the nanny because M2 has had some separation anxiety issues lately we thought it would be easier for her to be at home. So far it's been great having a nanny come, that way I can still go sit in the living room here and there and talk to M2, and she is comfortable in her familiar setting. Poor girl doesn't understand that mommy can't pick her up right now, so that has caused a few episodes of tears. We have the nanny here through the week, so that will be good to give me time to let my back fully heal. I have been so impressed with some of the great benefits Mr.P's company provides.

I am hoping to be back to normal soon...I was looking at my calendar and realized that starting in November I go to every other week doctor visits. P5's due date is really sneaking up on us! I'm ready for him to be here, but I am also really enjoying our time right now as a family of 3 knowing how chaotic life is going to be very soon.