Where do I even begin?!

I was so excited for my three day weekend. I had a huge list of things I wanted to get taken care of and I wanted to spend Monday at the beach. Needless to say, my weekend did not go as planned... not even close!

When Randy was home last weekend I woke up in the night with terrible back pain. Initially, I thought it was a kidney stone. The next morning it didn't bother me, but I pushed fluids just to be safe. At one point, Randy put his hand on my lower back and it nearly brought me to my knees. It hurt so bad! Since my back only hurt to touch I knew it wasn't a kidney stone and so I assumed I got bit or stung by some strange Hawaiian bug.

Tuesday I noticed a small rash on my back near the "bug bite" and by Wednesday it had spread into several patches along my lower back. I went to the doctor just to make sure the little man would be okay. The doctor said your body can react very differently during pregnancy and he thought I was having an allergic reaction. He gave me something to put on it and said to call if it got any worse.

Saturday morning I called my mom to ask if I could still go to water aerobics. After describing how much my "bug bite" had changed she advised that I not go. She said it sounded like I had shingles. Truthfully I didn't even know what shingles were so I googled a picture of it (bad idea by the way!!). The instant I saw the first image I knew that was what I had on my back. It's one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen!

After 20 weeks you are supposed to call Labor & Delivery if it's after office hours and you have a question. It just so happened the doctor I saw earlier in the week was on call and at the hospital so he had me come in. He took one quick look and confirmed it was shingles. Lovely.

Sunday I ran a few errands with Heather. As the day went on I began to feel a little worse and overall just uncomfortable. My pants and shirt irritated the shingles so I went home and just hung out on the couch for the evening. I felt even worse as the night went on, but the doctor warned me it may get worse before it gets better so I didn't think too much of it. Plus, knowing that I'll be experiencing labor pains in 3 short months I was trying hard not to complain as I know that will be pain on a whole different level.

At 3:30AM I threw in the towel and called home. I knew there wasn't anything anyone could do for me, but being alone and in so much pain I just wanted to tell someone. We decided I should try to lay down one more time and get some sleep since I had been up all night and call L&D in the morning. I hung up the phone, got another glass of water and went to the bathroom before laying back down. I was completely shocked to see that I passed a kidney stone! In that very instant I felt sooooo much better! As many as I've had you'd think I would have figured out one was coming, but I didn't. All I can say is that I'm so thankful I passed it so quickly and on my own. I can't imagine trying to pass one of those suckers for days on end while you're pregnant and drug free. I'd do it if it meant the little guy would be okay, but that's something I don't even want to think about!

I'm doing much better today and actually feel better than I thought I would. I'm hoping the worst of the shingles is over, but the doctors couldn't say for sure if it was or not. They weren't too specific, but I do know it will be a few weeks before they clear up all the way.

I didn't take a belly picture this weekend so here's one from today (25 weeks, 5 days). I thought I'd leave my shirt on this week so everyone wouldn't have to see all the nastiness of the shingles. I'll have you know those are regular jeans that I'm wearing and they are buttoned! I'll also go ahead and admit those are the only regular jeans that I have left and I can only button them after wearing them all day when they are stretched out. But that still counts in my book! :)