March

I've always loved the spring. Besides the beautiful blooms and warm breezes, I was born then and of course that makes it my favorite time of year. I knew that this particular spring (2008) would be a wonderful one filled with parties for my baby boy and joy anticipating his arrival. I was ending my second trimester, and I felt fine. My 24 week appointment went well. We heard the heartbeat on the Doppler. My wonderful OB, Dr. B., measured my stomach, and everything looked great.

I don't remember exactly when my cold started turning into flu-like symptoms, but it did. It was the beginning of March and pretty bad timing, considering I had to turn in conference reports, prepare for class every day, teach my students during the day, grade papers after school, and average grades for the third quarter report cards. It was an extremely stressful time at school for everyone, but I had the pleasure of getting the flu on top of it all.

I was having all of the symptoms: congestion, fever, and tenderness. Luckily, my fever lasted only a day or two. However, the congestion and coughing continued. I felt so bad that I had to go in for some extra doctor visits early in March, especially since I was having such intense pain in my chest area. That really scared me; sometimes I felt like I was having a heart attack. I didn't know what was going on with my body. After visiting with Dr. B., he recommended that I see my internist, Dr. M. to make sure my heart was okay. The baby's heartbeat was fine, and he was moving all over the place.

After visiting Dr. M., I was diagnosed with costochondritis, which is inflammation of the cartilage that joins the ribs to the breastbone. It can be caused by upper respiratory infections, so it made sense that I would have severe chest pain. My heart was fine, and that was good to hear. However, this pain was so intense. It was hard for those around me to believe me. Only my dear Wade and mom truly understood, because they saw me crying every night. It hurt without even doing anything. Lying down, sitting, stretching, or standing, nothing could ease the pain. Ibuprofen or Aleve would have helped the pain, but since I was pregnant I couldn't take those medications. So I had to stick to Tylenol, which hardly helped. Usually, I would get an hour or two of sleep, and then wake up crying and decide to stand in a warm shower. That would kill some time, until I could take my next Tylenol.

I kept thinking to myself that I all I had to do was make it to spring break, then I could heal, relax,and focus on having a healthy third trimester. Somehow God gave me the strength to make it. The Tylenol helped me enough to get through that last week. Wade and I were traveling to Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida for the break. His family has a wonderful home there on the beach, and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to travel one last time before our son arrived. We wanted to cherish this time together and enjoy long walks on the beach.

That weekend before our trip we were scheduled to take our childbirth education class at the hospital. The Tylenol continued to help my pain, so I knew that I could make it through a two day class. We learned so much that weekend and met a whole new set of families expecting that May and June. It seemed that all of Nashville was pregnant--very exciting!!!

I went in for our 28 week appointment that Monday morning, and the baby's measurements and heartbeat looked good. Dr. B. said we could travel, especially since we were on such a short flight. My chest pain concerned me, because annoyingly it had intensified over the last evening along with the swelling in my legs and feet.

We left for Florida that same evening. My pain continued to strengthen. It was like I could hardly take waiting the six hour period before my next dose of Tylenol. I hated it; I didn't want to depend on pain medication. I was scared for my baby boy. I wanted my body to heal, so that I could give him a healthy home to grow inside of for the next few months. The flight down to Florida was miserable. I cried the whole way. When we got there, my legs were severely swollen, and my pain was almost unbearable.

Wade felt completely helpless. He wanted to take away my pain, but he couldn't. We tried to walk on the beach that next morning, but the pain wouldn't allow it. We had to do something. The Tylenol wouldn't even work anymore. So Wade scheduled our flights home for that afternoon. I needed to be back home and have access to my doctors.

When we returned home, my mom spent a few nights with us. She would sleep in the bed with me, so Wade could get some good rest in the guest room. Tylenol no longer worked. My body was exhausted and lying down made the pain increase. So I spent all of my break in agony. I returned to Dr. B. and Dr. M.'s offices. Dr. B. decided to order an ultrasound to make sure the baby was okay. The baby looked fine, and the placenta and my cervix were also okay. The only concern was that the baby was measuring in the 30th percentile for weight. So he said that we would watch his growth in the next few weeks to make sure there was some consistency in his growth. Dr. M. was out of town, so I had to see another doctor in that practice. He examined my heart again and confirmed that everything was okay. I just had a severe case of costochondritis. There was nothing they could do. Sometimes it took months for this inflammation to heal.

I spent the next week in and out of school trying to heal. I would take warm bath after warm bath. My main concern was my son. There was too much stress and pain in my body, and I didn't want it to affect him. I noticed that his movements occured less frequently, and that really worried me.

Finally, Dr. B. prescribed a form of pain medication that was safe to take in the third trimester for just 72 hours. I took it that last weekend in March. We traveled up to my parents' cabin with them, so that my mom could watch me and give Wade some relief. I only took the medicine for the first 30 hours or so, because it truly helped me. For the first time in weeks, I was able to actually sleep and get more than 3 hours of it at one time. I didn't want to take any more medicine than I had to.

Although my swelling continued and my belly was beginning to become really uncomfortable, the pain in my chest was finally gone, and I was relieved. I wasn't worried about the planning or the nursery. We already had so much of it completed. The furniture was in place, and the floors were refinished. Now we could finally focus on having a delightful spring, and I was so excited about celebrating the arrival of my little man.