Early Maternity Leave

If you guys have been following my pregnancy blog, you know that overall this pregnancy has been VERY different from my first.  From morning sickness to sciatic nerve pain, this has been a relatively difficult pregnancy (for me anyway, I know many other mommies have a MUCH harder time but hey, I'm a whiner).  So yesterday on my way to work I experienced some severe chest pain. Now for anyone this would be a concern, but I have several heart conditions so this chest pain, and the fact it lasted for over an hour, really freaked me out.  Long story short, I ended up going to the ER where I was emitted immediately.  Of course my only concern was to make sure my baby was okay, and the damn hospital took over an HOUR to get someone down to my room to check his heartbeat!!!! Thankfully though everything was great with him.  After the entire day, the chest pains subsided and we refused the x-ray because, well, I'M PREGNANT!

So fast forward to today, and i have had a few instances of chest pain, however they are not severe at all and I'm beginning to think it might be a pulled or torn muscle due to the increase in breathing that comes from pregnancy. But my sciatic nerve pain is literally bringing me to tears!  I am having shooting pain from my hip to my Calv's, primarily on my left side, and round ligament pain that starts in the center of my uterus and moves to my hips. Well, with all of this and the chest pain from yesterday, my doctor decided to put me on maternity leave extra early...I'm only 16 weeks.  I have mixed feelings about this. I am sad because I really like my job (I am a supervisor at an ABA provider for people with developmental delays), and my leave begins right away so I don't get to help train my replacement or say bye to any of my clients.  But I am also relieved, because I'm hoping that with a little rest my pain will get better so I can go an do more, low impact, mommy things with Isabella and get some good quality time with her before Charlie comes.  My wonderful hubby is also looking for someone to come once a week for a few hours and handle all of the heavy duty cleaning, like moping and cleaning the bathrooms, which I am really excited and grateful for.  I am just so thankful that my hubby and I make a point to live off of his paychecks and only use mine to pay off my student loans or for any help needed with unexpected items.  Because of this I don't need to worry about our finances as much as I would if we were dependent on my checks to get us by.  It's amazing what a little bit of planning can do to make your life easier!  So with my early leave I hope I will have more time for crafts, and fun activities with Isabella, that I can then blog about here!  So stay tuned!