Owie.

So today as I was leaving the doctor's office, Wilson decided it would be funny to run away from me and dart between parked cars into traffic. I don't move quickly even on a good day, but I was mercifully able to grab him before he ran in front of a speeding Escalade. Aside from the terror and anger and relief I felt when I caught him, I also felt a lot of pain. In my haste to catch him, I hurt myself, and it may have been enough to change the way I deliver Violet.

I fear I may have damaged the cartilage that keeps my pelvis stable. (The specific area I'm referring to is part E in the picture above.) Recall during pregnancy that hormones act to relax the joints in preparation to push out a baby, so I'm pretty vulnerable to injury, especially in the area where my 7+ pound unborn child lives. She's low in my abdomen anyway, putting a lot of pressure on my nether regions, so it would not surprise me at all if that is what happened. Regardless, right now I really hurt. I can hardly walk (especially on stairs, Oh God) and all I can do to fix it right now is take a Tylenol and sit on an ice pack. Yeehaw.

I put in an email to the doctor explaining what happened, and asked him if my suspicion about the injury is correct. It's late and I just sent it, so I won't have news until tomorrow sometime. But if I'm right, and I really really really hope I am not, things might be a little more uncertain than they were before. I mean, I want a natural childbirth and all, but I'm not stupid. I do well with pain in general and especially well with the purposeful (like exercise discomfort and, well, childbirth). But injury pain is something different. I don't believe in unnecessary suffering.

What am I saying? I'm saying if this baby comes in the next couple of days, and I'm still hurting as badly as I am hurting today, there's a good chance I will consider getting an epidural. Because compounding the already intense discomfort of childbirth with the searing soreness of newly damaged pelvic cartilage is just too damn much, even for me. Here's hoping I just strained some ligaments, and that a couple days of rest and ice will be enough to get me to deliver Violet the way I would prefer. If not, well, as I say to my other pregnant friends, the point is to have a healthy baby. The journey getting there doesn't really matter.