Not Ready for Maternity Leave

High Schools have elevators I believe see if they would let you use it instead of the stairs. Where my daughter goes the students that are on crutches and wheelchairs use them.

J.

Buy a bella band. ( http://www.ingridandisabel.com/)
It might help take the pressure off of a little, it did for me.....I was on tylenol w/codine also when I was 30 weeks....I have a pulled back muscle and couldn't sit, stand or walk with out pain. Try and make soem arrangements where you dont have to do the stairs, they have to be willing to work with you a little bit. Maybe get a couple students to be "helpers" for you and run papers or whatever to where they need to go. Good Luck and hang in there.

I feel your pain. I'm 26 weeks pregnant and and am a letter carrier. I walk for about seven hours a day over all sorts of uneven terrain in my winter boots. I can't afford to be off work right now either. It helps to stretch every morning when you get out of bed. I've actually found that I have trouble getting out of bed when I don't do it. Try doing a couple calistenics in the morning and see if that helps.

You poor thing. I know how your feeling. I had awful pain with my second pregnancy and I work for a law firm doing all their computer stuff so I was moving around alot, under desks, etc. I could never afford to take off nor did I want my maternity leave to be sitting around at home waiting for baby, I wanted my leave to enjoy my baby. You've gotten some great suggestions here and I highly recommend you take them. You'll be so sad when you have to return to work early with your little one still so tiny. Trust me, pushing through it now will be so worth it later. I whined to my husband and friends a lot. I was probably pretty insufferable but that's their job, listen when I need them and help me get through it. Massage and chiropracter can help alot and actually movement will help ease those pains. My pains came and went so maybe you're just going through a particuarly painful time that will pass in a couple of weeks. Take eleveators, elevate feet, drink lots of water, eat well, watch salt, stretch, sleep as much as possible. Do all those things and anything is manageable. And think of it this way, its practice for how sore your going to be after birth. Not to put it that way to freak you out but with 2 kids my back kills me all the time, my knees hurt from bending down to them, ever day I have a headache from work and or them, I could go on but I'm a Mom and I just pop a tylenol (I'd watch that coedine, not sure if that's a great idea) and keep on keeping on because I have to! Life in my hous stops if Mommy stops so just imagine yourself practicing for all that having children entails, the good, the bad and the ugly! Your over halfway there you can do it!

The only tidbits I have are for dealing with the pain. I have had horrible pain- to the point I could barely walk. I started going to the chiropractor and they have been adjusting me. I figured out that I was a stomach sleeper and so that was pushing things back into my bones. I have since started using a body pillow that is really helping me to keep things in place. I would also try to avoid the stairs if it means packing a lunch, asking your principle for an assistant to come by, etc.

I personally am 36 weeks pregnant and I too work at a high school where I am going up and down stairs all the time. We do have one elevator that I started using about a month ago when I am going up because I just run out of breath. Round ligament pain sucks, but it does go away usually not a long term thing. People are surprised each day now when I show up for work LOL. But, I don't know what kind of job you have but I work in IT and for the most part my dept has been helpful in giving me more the of desk work and sending other people to do more of the running around, but there are days (like today LOL) where I still have to. I just try to get as much rest as I can when I am off work (which is interesting with a 3 year old and a husband who works alot) and I get by ok. I also have talked my boss in to these last few weeks letting me have Wed off ( I can take them as a sick day and at this point it will only be 4 sick days IF I go to my due date). Resting that one day in the middle of the week I think will help alot. Could you arrange for something like that?

Hi. I am a massage therapist and I recomend going to see a massage therapist. To find a good one you can start by calling one of the schools and being a volunteer in one of the pregnancy massage classes. If nothing else it will feel really good. Try the Wellness and Massage Training Institute ###-###-####. The training there is excellent and you may learn something you can have your husband do for you as well. Good luck...

I sincerely feel for you. I've been there too. I work at a company where there are a lot of stairs involved and I too had MISERABLE pelvic pain to the point where I was crying each night when I had to turn over in bed. It was terrible. People tried to tell me that it was round ligament pain, but the areas they were describing was not where I was feeling my pain. I did some research and what I was experiencing was symphasis pubis dysfunction. Basically, your body produces a hormone to soften the ligaments and the one between my pubic bones was too soft, so it was grinding and popping and becomin inflamed. The further into my pregnancy, the worse it got. I'm not saying that you have the same thing, or that the same will happen to you, but if you can prevent it or help it, then by all means. Most OB's just tell you that it's part of pregnancy, but my midwife did give me some great suggestions that did help and can perhaps help you. She advised me to stay VERY hydrated, prop your feet up at work if you can, and definitely when you get home at night. Try warm baths, and see a chiropractor. I only went to the chiropractor once, but it helped tremendously and I wish I was financially able at the time to continue going and take advantage of the benefits. Other than that, I just decided to ride out the pain until my beautiful little girl was born. I'm not one much for drugs, so I avoided any pain killers until the very end and even then, it didn't seem to help much. My biggest suggestion is allow yourself to take it easy. As women, we tend to overdo it. This is your time to relax. As a sidenote, I worked up until the day my daughter was born and about a week after I gave birth, the pain started to subside. It does get better if you can hang in there. Good luck to you and don't be afraid to ask for help.

p.s. I began a savings account through ING towards the beginning of my pregnancy and it really helped us get through the 3 months I was off. If you can afford it, it's worth looking into. They automatically withdrawl however much you want out of your checking account into a savings and their interest rate is usually between 3 and 4% which may help you a little bit while you're on maternity leave.

Oh how frustrating! I am 24 weeks pregnant right now and was having quite a lot of hip pain until about 4 weeks ago when I decided to visit my chiropractor. Seriously, this has helped me SO much I can't tell you. I see Dr. Nella at Bucktown Chiropractic - she does lots of work with pregnant women and I'm sure can help you too - completely worth it especially if you have insurance that will cover part or all. Now that she's fixed everything I feel great!! If you're in the burbs I'm sure you can get a recommendatation from some other posters here.

I would avoid the codine - that just doesn't seem good for your baby! I should mention that I had hip pain (but not that bad) during my first pregnancy too and I never did anything about it, which I regret in retrospect. I'm so much happier now that I have it all fixed. I would look into this vs. taking your leave early. You will be much happier if you aren't in pain.

I know all pregnancy's are different and that each person's pain tolerance is different but I worked up until the day before my cesarean. I was a special eduction teacher and was on my feet all day (I didn't have planning periods, etc). Some things you can do to help are to take the elevator, use a stool or chair in the front of the room to sit at as you teach, drink plenty of water to help with the edema, and have the kids pass out papers etc. The round ligament pain doesn't last the entire time, at least it didn't for me, so it should subside. So if money is a huge issue try to make it and use the maternity leave to be with your newborn and to recover from the labor. Good luck.

Don't sweat it too much. The round ligament is stretching a lot because you are going to be putting on the most of your weight during this time. They make big elastic bands for this time that help tremendously. Be sure you take your time. Sleep on your side with a pillow between your knees, i did that with all three pregnancies and still do, or I can't sleep. If you put it in the right spot, you can also put a small pillow under your belly when you lay on your side, that helps lots! I am not sure what kind of work you do, but try to limit your up and down the steps, and go SLOW. Like, if you would normally have to walk down two flights to get lunch, bring it with you. Isn't there a handicapped accessible elevator there? I thought all schools have to have one now?

Good luck! YOu can do it!

C

Personally I would stay far away from anything with codeine while pregnant or even nursing. Please do your research. It is not safe. Also, I know it is so tough being in pain like that. I can assure you I have been there. This last pregnancy was SO painful that I was at the chiropractor 2 times a week and went for accupuncture to help with the pain ans still I would cry every night in pain, I kid you not. All day long I would whine or cry in front of my 2 year old and she was so patient with me cause I was completely disfunctional physically. I wanted to do things but I was completely disabled by the sciatica and round ligament stretching pain and also I carried very VERY low the entire pregnancy and had preterm labor for a few days before it went away on its own at 32 weeks. I could go on and on about how bad it can get but thank G-d made it through it and everyone's thank G-d healthy and happy so that's all that matters in the end. I know it's bad but how can you take off already?! You have so much longer to go. You are going to have to grin and bare it cause you need to be able to make it financially for this child. Unless there is some kind of immediate danger to you or the fetus that you have not described I personally could not take leave this early cause then you will be in a precarious financial state and you may lose benefits or your job entirely. Not a great idea. It's so hard to go back to work after having a baby as it is that you do not want to rock the boat in any other way. WIth my first baby I also had to do 3 flights teaching and it was so hard. What about an elevator - don't they have one in the facility?? It is regular policy to have one in such a building as a school. That's what I sometimes had to do when I really couldn't do it. I wish I had more advice but hang in there and know that you will make it through this too and live to laugh and talk about it as we all do.

Unfortunately, round ligament pain is a bad side effect from pregnancy. It hurts! With my third, my pelvis felt like it was splitting apart for almost my entire pregnancy. It's not fun! If you can, hold out for as long as you possibly can before going on maternity leave. Maybe get your doctor to write a note that would limit your climbing stairs all day? The thing with that kind of pain is that in doesn't necessarily get better if you are at home, unless you are in bed all the time. Now with my fourth, I get round ligament pain if I get up from a chair, or bed, or turn the wrong way. Anyway, good luck, and hopefully you will feel better soon.