Our Blessings

Thursday, September 30, 2010

round ligament pain

Boring pregnancy details here. But I meant to be documenting more of it.. so here's a little update.

I woke up this afternoon with terrible abdominal pain... so bad that I had to call out of work. It was in my upper and lower stomach area so I didnt know if this was GI related or uterine. It was difficult to walk, which really sucks when you think you're going to vomit. (I never did though, thank goodness). So I went back to sleep hoping it would go away.

14 hours later, it hasn't. It isn't GI related, and the pain has lessened in my upper stomach. Eating doesn't change anything, and fluids have only helped with the matching headache I had. I did take a hot bath (semi-hot, since you're not really allowed) and that helped. After talking to one of my maternity nurse friends and being reassured by the doppler a whopping 5 times in 10 hours, I have self diagnosed this as round ligament pain. Usually I feel that when I change positions after sitting or laying for a long time, but this is constant. It feels like muscular tightness rather than cramping. Who's had a pregnancy after a c-section? was your round ligament pain worse? do you think it's because the muscle is sore? or does the 2nd pregnancy just result in faster growth, so therefore worse RLP?

I dont like it at all. The baby's heart rate has been up slightly.. not much... but I would think the all day pain and maybe the hot water (after the bath was the fastest) has affected my poor little bird :( I'd rather know it's high than wonder if it's there at all. If I didn't have my doppler, I'd definitely have been in triage last night.


I cant miss work again tonight.. I dont have very much paid time off and every hour that I miss basically translates to less time of guaranteed maternity leave. I guess I'm just gonna be moving slowly at work if/when I go, because although right now the pain is steady, it still causes those worse twinges if I move too much.

I wish pain could just be pain, a nusiance, and not be horrifying worry.

I'm sorry baby.. I dont mean to stress. I hope this pain just means that your nest is growing bigger for a healthier you!

Six days until anatomy scan!

5 comments:

  1. Oh friend...hating this for you because it HURTS!!! This has basically been what I've been going through for the last several months and it's really uncomfortable...of course, we do it gladly, but it still hurts.

    That seems to be the theme of this pregnancy: "Well, you got pregnant so quickly after your c-section, you are essentially healing and growing at the same time and that's a lot of stress on your body." EVERY thing is exacerbated--the round ligament pain is REALLY bad (and different than from what I remember!) and especially lower stomach/underbelly. I've got a lot more pain under my ribs (especially the right one--when I lay on my side, it feels like my whole side is falling out!) and that's from the diastasis being so extreme from Matthew's gestation and the subsequent rough tearing apart of the muscles during the emergency section. I'm also noticing more pelvic pain --SI specifically, and I'm told that also is from the surgery weakening those muscles (and not having much time for them to recover) and as a result, my uterus getting bigger and heavier puts even MORE pressure on the pelvis/hips...

    In essence, every ache and pain related seem to be worse because of the c-section, but more because I got pregnant again within 6 months and though they say that's ok for the baby, it's not without its issues for me.

    And as every doctor says, we'll gladly take it and manage.
    Praying you feel better and are able to take it easy at work!

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  2. Hey!
    I had the same sort of thing- I found the pain worse, and sooner in my 2nd preg. Dr. said it was normal- but of course scary- I think I went in two or three times, just to make sure!

    I started feeling ligament pain around week 9 and it continued on and off probably until month 6 or 7.

    Thinking of you and your birdie, and I'm so excited about 6 days from now when you get to see the little one, and know whether you should buy blue, or pink -- although I'm sure you have lots of pink already :(

    Jane

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  3. I've noticed pains coming quicker with each pregnancy. I got hip pain much earlier this last time. Hope you get some relief from it!

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  4. I had the same thing and it was right after I found out I got pregnant, around 7 weeks or so. My doctor said with subsequent pregnancies you will tend to feel pains more because everything is just exaggerated with being pregnant again. I went to the ER about it and they just said to take some Tylenol for it and it worked! Hope they get better.

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  5. I had this right around 19 weeks too. It was very scary. For me the pain was constant but just on my right side, and got worse whenever I moved or when I peed. After ruling out a UTI I still wasn't sure it was RLP and was scareed and called my doctors office twice, then the high risk physician on call one night, and finally insisted on an appointment and a scan just to be sure. Nothing was ever found and later the pain sort of traced down onto the bottom of my pubic bone finally convincing me it was just RLP like the doctors thought. It lasted for until just recently. While I hated to take anything for it, Tylenol helped a bit when I had to move around at work. Hope you feel better soon. Can't wait to hear about the big scan!
    P.S - 28 weeks tomorrow!!! The last 5 weeks have been trying, but I'm so happy we've made it this far! New goal: 32 weeks.

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