Well, we made it to 21 weeks. I remember back in October, after the ultrasound dated the pregnancy, when I counted out the weeks and put them in my calendar. 20 weeks seemed so far away, and now we’ve surpassed that milestone. Jay and I went to Baby G’s 20 week check-up last Thursday morning and got confirmation that he’s a still a boy! In fact, for a lot of the appointment, he had his hands covering his face but his legs spread wide open for all to see the goods. Ah, that’s my boy, doing that “Don’t look at me but really look at me” pose. Making me proud in utero.
Anyway, at your 20 week scan, you get an anatomy ultrasound to make sure that everything is developing okay with the baby. That’s the scan where most people find out the baby’s sex. [The ultrasound we had on December 21 to find out Baby G’s gender early was elective, done so our families could get to watch and find out with us.] We got a lot of good news: Baby G is progressing nicely and growing right on target for what he should be; his heart, spine, and kidneys all looked great and there are no soft markers for any conditions, defects, etc. This was all so relieving to hear because when you don’t know what’s going on in there and you read sad stories on baby forums of people who aren’t as fortunate, it really starts to freak you out. I’m so happy and feel so blessed that everything looks good so far.
The only bad news we got – which isn’t even bad news – is that my placenta is very low and slightly over my cervix right now. The placenta, for anyone who doesn’t know, is the lifeline for baby. It’s how they get their nutrients, eliminate waste, etc. If your placenta has a problem, the baby’s life could be in danger. When you have a low-lying placenta over your cervix (which opens to let the baby out during a vaginal birth), it’s called a “placenta previa.” It can be serious and if the placenta hasn’t moved by the end of your pregnancy, it means restricted activity or bed rest and a c-section. This early, we were told not to worry because a lot of them lay low this early on and the majority of them will move up and clear the cervix as the uterus expands. What does this mean for me? Nothing right now. It’s so slight that they told me I could continue to move about and exercise as normal, but they will check it again around 32-33 weeks to confirm that it’s moved out of the way!
Since that was a super long paragraph, I’ll just give the rest of the pregnancy updates by bullet point:
- Total weight gain per the doctor’s scale, from 6 weeks to 20 weeks: 6lbs
- My belly changes daily, based on what I eat or where the baby is hanging out. Most days, it starts off normal but as I eat or drink throughout the day, I get bloated or gassy. By the end of the day, it looks like I just had a 7 course meal, lol. Then I go to sleep and the cycle repeats itself.
- I have had a lot of round ligament pain all week, especially in my back, which means things are a-stretchin’ and my belly’s going to be popping soon.
- Baby G likes to sit on my left side. You can see him at night when looking at my bare stomach. The right side is soft and relatively flat still while the left side sticks out and you can feel/see something is there. I have to take a picture before I pop and you can’t tell anymore, but I don’t want to weird people out.
- He’s sitting pretty low still: I feel punches to my bladder and kicks right below my belly button.
- This past week was the first time Jay was able to feel the kicks. He doesn’t feel the punches that are lower, but he’s felt some of the kicks. 🙂
- Movement – Everyone says babies are most active at night, but I’m at the point where I wake up to pee 1-2 times a night now and I don’t feel him then. I get punched throughout the day & evenings, though. I guess he must be up against my back or something at night so I don’t feel him moving around.
- (TMI Alert!) I pee so much all day/night that I thought I had a UTI. After a swab, a urine, and a blood test, I’m cleared of all infections. Turns out I just need to “be gentler” with the toilet paper, haha. 🙁
- I have restless leg syndrome at night. Poor Zoe, who likes to sleep up against me, has been kicked and rolled over and has to change spots all night long, haha. Jay, on the other hand, has banned me from cuddling at night so I’m not so close to him to kick him and wake him up.
- I have no pregnancy ailments to complain about. 🙂 My only “thing” is I had a pinched nerve in my left thigh when I was 22 and that injury has been re-aggravated from pregnancy, only 100x’s more annoying. At any given time, my thigh goes numb, tingly, feels like a band aid was just ripped off of it or has sharp, shooting pains. There’s no way to stop it other than sit down and hope it goes away, but even then, there’s no position to make it better or way I can sit, stand, or lay to avoid it. I’ve tried heat and ice to no avail. But it’s not constant puking nor is it life-threatening to me or Baby G, so I can’t even call it a complaint.
Okay, I think that’s all. If I missed something, please feel free to ask me about it in the comments. I’ll do another update at 28 weeks, when we finish the second trimester. Some pictures:
Getting the anatomy scan done:
Baby G waving hi. She caught him as he raised his hands from his face:
Baby feet! Who doesn’t like baby feet?
She went to 4D so we could look at his face. I think he kinda looks like an old man in the first picture. The second picture is adorable because I think he had fallen asleep at that point.
20 week bump picture. I have had zero desire to take any belly pictures. I kept forgetting to do it at home, which is why this is in the bathroom of Pure Barre! I went to fix my pants and remembered, “Oh! I need to take a picture since it’s the halfway point. Let me do that now before I forget!” And that’s the story behind this picture.
