Unusual symptom

For about three weeks now, I have been having a very unusual case of numbness in my left upper thigh, just above my knee. It doesn't happen all of the time, but comes and goes periodically throughout the day. It always seems to happen in the mornings while I am blow drying my hair...weird, huh?

At first, I thought it was just really dry skin, but when I would touch the skin, I realized that it was numb - similar to when your foot falls asleep and you get the tingly prickly feeling. It's very strange but I haven't really been that alarmed since it has not affected my ability to stand or walk.

This morning, while I was at work, it happened again. I was standing in the hallway outside my office talking to my boss and I found myself shaking my leg because it was falling asleep. I thought, at that moment, that maybe it was a good idea to call my OB just to let them know was happening. When I called, the nurse said that she thought I should come in to see a doctor just to make sure it wasn't something serious.

This afternoon, I went to the OB office and saw Dr. Carr, one of the physicians in the practice. She asked me numerous questions about the feeling/numbness that I am experiencing. Then, she did some basic tests on my feet and legs.

First, she told me to close my eyes and she used a q-tip type thing and asked me to tell her when I felt her touching different parts of my feet and legs. She used the soft part & the end part of the q-tip and I had to tell her when I felt "soft" and when I felt "scratchy". Thankfully, all of my feeling was good and she said that I did perfectly on that test. She also had me push and pull with both my legs and my feet to make sure that I didn't have any loss of strength. Again, all looked good.

Dr. Carr told me that she didn't think this unusual symptom was anything to worry about, but probably is simply a nerve that is being compromised in some way because of the growing baby inside of me. She suggested that I see a physical therapist that specializes in working with pregnant women. She said that PT would be able to evaluate anything that I may be doing subconsciously that is causing this to happen - such as the way I stand or my posture. I haven't made an appointment yet, but I am going to call them tomorrow and try to set one up for next week.

One of the highlights of being at the doctor today was that I was able to listen to the baby's heartbeat. I was thinking about asking Dr. Carr if she could do it once we were done talking about my leg issue, but she beat me to it and said, "So, do you want to hear your baby's heartbeat today?" I told her that I very much wanted to and that I was going to ask her if she didn't offer.

I must admit that I was a little nervous when it took her a few seconds to find the heartbeat, but once that loud, quick "swooshing" noise appeared, I was overjoyed! I do believe that sound is one of the nicest things I have heard in awhile.

(For anyone that is interested, the baby's heartbeat rate was 140 today. That is down quite a bit from what it was three weeks ago when we had our ultrasound. I'm not really sure what that means, but just something to note.)

So, tomorrow marks the 18-week mark and time just seems to fly by! June 26th seems like it is a long time away, but I know it is going to be here before we know it. I will continue to blog as often as I can to keep up with anything exciting that is going on.

Home Repair #1

Keith and I successfully made our first home repair this past weekend.  I was going to call a plumber - and probably end up paying an arm and a leg - but instead, we decided to try and make the repair on our own.  YAY to us because not only did we fix the issue, but it only cost us $7.43 for the part at Lowe's.

The problem started about a week ago when Keith noticed that the knob on the master bath was not turning properly. It was not turning far enough to get enough hot water to make a comfortable shower and you had to turn it past the normal "Off" setting in order for the water to shut off.  And, sometimes it would drip, as if there were a leak of some sort.

My dad suggested that we take the knob off and see if maybe it was just a washer issue.  He said that he didn't think it would be a major repair and it would be fairly easy to do.  Keith and I were not very confident since neither of us consider ourselves "handymen".

But....my dad was right and it was very easy to fix.  Keith took the knob apart and removed it and we found that part of the inside of it was broken, thus causing it to not turn correctly. We looked online to see if the Lowe's near our house carried that particular brand of knob and they did.  So, on Sunday, while Keith was watching the Steelers game, I ran to Lowe's to get the knob (and a few other things we needed).  When I returned, I put the new knob on and it worked! Woohoo!

Of course, I hope that we don't have a lot of home repairs and I realize that not every one is going to be as easy - or cheap - as this one.  But, right now, I am just enjoying the fact that Keith and I were successful this time! 

15 week checkup

Yesterday, I went to see my OB for my monthly checkup. I will be 16 weeks pregnant tomorrow so I am at a point in my pregnancy where I go to the doctor once per month. The last time I saw the doctor was for our ultrasound in the beginning of December. I remember thinking that it was going to be such a long time until my next appointment, but now it has come and gone. With the holidays and all that we had going on, that time sure did fly by!

This particular appointment was nothing special. They took my blood pressure and I gave a urine sample. Both were normal. Dr. Wamoff listened to the baby's heartbeat - which was loud and clear! And, we talked about how things were going, how I was feeling and any questions or concerns that I had. Thankfully, I am doing really well and she was very happy with how everything looks.

As we were walking out of the room, she turned around and said that she almost forgot to tell me how proud she was of me because I only gained 3 lbs! She said that was very good, especially during the holidays. (Of course, I know that 3 lbs is normal during your first trimester AND I already have extra weight so I won't need to gain as much as a "normal" sized woman, but it was still nice to hear someone say that I hadn't gained too much weight!)

My next prenatal appointment is in four weeks and the "big one" (where we find out the baby's gender) is on February 16th. It seems like that is so far away, but I know it will be here before I know it. I am really excited about all of the amazing things that are happening inside of me and I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Sickness

This vacation has not been the best one of my life, that is for sure!  Our trip to PA from Dec. 20th-25th was good, but this past week visiting my family in Richmond has definitely been somewhat "crappy".

It all started last Sunday night when I woke up in the middle of the night with an ache in my stomach.  I made several (probably more than 10) trips to the bathroom that night between midnight and 7am.  I will spare you the gory details, but it was not fun, and I kept thinking, "How much more can I have in my stomach?  It just keeps running out of me!" Then, on Monday morning, around 8am, I had a very unpleasant meeting with the porcelain god.  It was one of the worst "getting sick" moments I have had.  My family was wondering if it had anything to do with morning sickness, but I really just think it was the stomach flu.  I laid around all day on Monday, not feeling like doing anything and certainly not even thinking about eating anything.  Thankfully, my mom was home all day and she took very good care of me.  I started to feel better Monday evening and was even able to eat a little bit of dinner.

Monday night was when we found out the bad news about my grandma.  My parents took an early flight out to FL on Tuesday morning and when my dad called to let us know that they had arrived, he said that my mom was feeling awful - same symptoms I had had the day before! Yuck.  Who wants to have the stomach flu while they are traveling?

By Wednesday evening, my parents were back in Richmond and now my dad was not feeling well!  He didn't eat dinner with us that night and he totally missed the New Years Eve shenanigans.  I think he was in bed by 9pm that night and we didn't see him until sometime Thursday evening.  He felt well enough to be downstairs with everyone, but wasn't well enough to eat anything yet.

Since then, my two brother-in-laws have both gotten it (Shaun is at home with Pierce and Brian is here).  Katie, Keith and my grandma all woke up with it this morning!!

Now, we are all discussing who is going to make the 7 hour trip to Binghamton for the funeral and who isn't.  What a fun vacation!!