The Blessing of Provision Through Pregnancy Sciatica
Let me start by saying pregnancy sciatica is the worst.
Our house was in desperate need of a broom and dustpan for about a month before I finally broke down and pulled it out of the hall closet. Tumbleweeds of cat and dog hair collected in the corners, whispering together near the baseboards, as if planning something no one else could hear.
The stars aligned that Wednesday finding me with motivation and someone to help watch our son, who loves to help by stirring around the dirt pile and walking right through it tracking little dusty footsteps along behind him.
We moved as a unit through the upstairs, piling up our dirty findings in the hallway. It was going smoothly, and as I continued the rhythmic motion of back and forth, pulling and pushing I wondered why it had taken me so long to work up to sweeping. What held me back from cleaning up a little bit? (The answer to that is: A) the toddler and B) I just don’t enjoy it.)
As I went into the hall bathroom, picking up toddler clothes, bathmat, and other odds and ends from the floor to sweep under, a stabbing pain began throbbing in my right low-back. Gasping at the sudden and sharp pain, I found my smooth rhythmic movement from before sent jolts of electric stabs radiating from my low back down my glute, a quick intake of breath accompanying each shock.
By dinnertime, even after resting from time to time throughout the day, I hobbled around the kitchen getting my dinnerplate ready. It was a sad sight to see. After watching me gasp in pain a few times, Ryan came to my side, urging me to please, sit down. He’d bring my plate to the table for me.
At my last obstetrician appointment, I mentioned the back pain offhand, waiting to see my nurse practitioner’s reaction. She smiled, a knowing look in her wise, brown eyes, as she said, “Because this is your second and your body probably hasn’t gone back to exactly the way it was before your first pregnancy and delivery, everything’s looser. So, you’ll start to feel those aches and pains a lot sooner than you did the first time. That’s totally normal.”
I was relieved to learn it wasn’t something to worry about and hoped it wouldn’t get any worse.
Choose An Appropriate Exercise
My center of gravity is beginning to shift, but Ryan and I still exercise together in the evenings. Seeing no need to switch things up until later on in the pregnancy, I kept doing the same workout we’d been doing together. (Don’t worry, I’m taking it easy!) One day last week we all marched downstairs to our little workout area to check another day off for exercise.
From the first move in the warm-up sequence, I knew something was off and I’d have to take this workout easy, testing each step as I went. Movements which I perform with regularity became the harbingers of pain, leaving me in a cloud of frustration and perspiration.
Another stab of pain as I lifted a leg threw off my balance. I grabbed a sip of water that turned to steam shooting out the top of my head as I said, “I just can’t do anything anymore!”
Feeling out of control or incapable of doing something I do all the time makes me uncomfortable, like wearing one of those itchy sweaters without a camisole underneath. Even as I look down at my protruding belly and understand my limitations, I still can’t wrap my mind around the feeling of needing to slow down. This was my sign that it was time to downshift my exercise to a prenatal specific workout, one intended to cater to the changes your body endures.
Pregnancy brings different levels of vulnerability, as well as a whole host of symptoms no one has ever mentioned to you before. From being poked and prodded, to showing people you don’t know you’re most sensitive areas, to learning and accepting a new kind of reliance and dependency. You simply can’t know the feeling until you’re forced to by a sudden illness, a loss of some kind, or a pregnancy.
We are conditioned to believe that reliance and dependency on someone else is a weakness because I should be able to do this on my own. We believe asking for help is the worst place we can be, but it’s the only way we learn the blessing of God’s provision.
Photo by Derick McKinney on Unsplash
