Week 6

Week 6 brought with it some illness, thankfully just for me and not the baby. Over this past weekend, I started to lose my appetite, which even pre-pregnancy was rare! Sunday I started to have this pressure on my bladder, and when I say pressure, I mean it felt like Santa Claus was sitting on my stomach. I have a tilted uterus that was discovered during Week 5's ultrasound, which can make you vulnerable to urinary tract infections and for anyone who does not know me, for 2 years my name was synonymous with urinary tract injection/kidney infections.

Monday morning I felt a lot better. I went to work and did my usual Monday morning routine and also did a first day orientation with one of our Fall semester interns. Literally all of a sudden I started to shake and was hot and cold. When I stood up and had to hold onto the wall not to fall over, I figured perhaps I should go home. I was running a low temperature, but held off on going to the doctor.

That night was rough. My lower back started to hurt, which I unfortunately know means the infection is spreading to the kidney. I called Dr.H's office in the morning and was seen later that afternoon. My suspicions were right, positive urinary tract infection, which based on the increased pain and sensitivity in my back, was beginning to spread to the kidney. I was given a shot which will boost my immune system and was given an antibiotic (which is safe to take during pregnancy). Let's just hope the oral antibiotics will clear it up without requiring a hospital visit for IV antibiotics. They explained that it takes more for the body to fight it off because it is essentially fighting off "for two". I need to continue to push fluids, which I have been doing and try and get my eating back on track.

Moral of the story for me is not to let things go, especially if your gut is telling you something is wrong. Dr H. let me know that it is definitely better to fight infections early on and he is confident that this infection will clear up. I didn't want to be "that pregnant woman". You know, the one who always thinks something is wrong and calls her OB-GYN office weekly or even daily.

Also, Dr. H did a physical exam as well and baby is doing great! No bleeding and the cramping I was experiencing of the last couple days is the uterus pushing on the bladder. When I use the bathroom, the uterus "sees" all this room to fill now that the bladder was using and tries to fill it. Essentially, I guess they are fighting for space. Sounds kind of funny to me. We have our ultrasound tonight too. I CANNOT WAIT!

Little side note on the tilted uterus for those who are curious. Apparently, it typically corrects itself during the first trimester. I will tell you this though, from now on it's cranberry juice everyday for me!