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.