Halfway There!

I don’t know what it is about this pregnancy that is different than when I was pregnant with Luke, but it took me well into half of the day before realizing that it was Monday…. meaning a new week, and the halfway point. When I was pregnant with Luke, I had like 5 pregnancy apps, and knew what was happening each day, how big the baby was and any other interesting tidbits. That isn’t the case with this baby. I have  no idea what the baby is doing in there aside from moving and growing.

The past 4 weeks have been pretty uneventful. I devour a box or two of cereal everyday. Meat, fruits and veggies don’t stay down. I’ve put on the 10+ pounds I lost, and put on another 10……all thanks to Honey Smacks and Lucky charms. It’s an obsession, and I just can’t stop eating!

The baby is moving and growing just like he or she should (or at least we think so). We have the anatomy scan on Thursday and hopefully the gender reveal Saturday. At last scan, the baby was measuring 5 days ahead.

In comparing this pregnancy with Luke’s, things are very different. I felt Luke move a lot, but because of an anterior placenta some of his movements were lost. This time around, I have a posterior placenta (that is now next to my cervix rather than on top of it)…..and boy does this baby move. This kid doesn’t stop! S/he is currently lying transverse and low. The baby can move at my left and right hip simultaneously. Most movement is right above my pubic bone though. When I am lying down or sitting, you can see my belly jiggle like a bowl of jello from the baby moving so much. You can see little bumps and knocks as the baby moves around. S/he hates when I sit down though, and beats me up from the inside until I move. I think its getting squished up in there.

Another major difference between the two pregnancies is how differently I am carrying the baby vs. Luke. I thought that I was huge when I was pregnant with Luke. Now, I wasn’t the tiniest person, or the largest…..but I was pretty big all things considering. Well, with this baby, I am measuring the same as I was at 34 weeks with Luke. A lot of that I think has to do with being on the PICC line, fluids and IV meds. In my bump pictures with Luke, you could tell that I didn’t feel well. My skin was pale, my lips were dry and my eyes were so tired looking. With this baby, I’m a little blob. My face, arms, hips, butt and legs are so much fatter than they were with Luke.

As far as symptoms go, the major things are changes in my vision, sacroiliac pain, pubic pain, increased discharge, and contractions. I am doing okay seeing things far away, but things that are up close give me a headache and I have a lot of trouble seeing what it is. The other day I threw my glasses across the room because I couldn’t see out of them. This happened with LUke, but to a lesser extent than this baby.

My back is absolutely killing me. I have to be very careful with my movements because one wrong twist leaves me incapacitated for the remainder of the day. The doctors think that my back never fully recovered from having Luke, and have separated early with this baby causing my pelvis to shift. The same thing is going on in the front with my hips separating at the pubic bone.

I have noticed in the past couple weeks that I am starting to experience a combination of Braxton Hicks and real contractions. I can tell a difference in the two as my Braxton Hicks don’t hurt and only harden either the top or the bottom of my uterus. The real contractions come at nearly perfect intervals and hurt (well, it’s more of a deep aching pain than anything else) and my entire uterus contracts. It started at 18 weeks exactly with Luke, and 18.5 weeks with Baby L.

Accompanying the contractions is a major increase in discharge. I go through most of the day feeling like I wet my pants because of it. I don’t think it’s amniotic fluid, but just normal pregnancy changes. I had the same thing with Luke and the doctor was convinced it was go time.

I have been really excited about doing a gender reveal at Luke’s birthday party. If you haven’t already, you can find me on Facebook. I will be doing a live broadcast of the Gender reveal. Time is TBA.

I think that is all for this bumpdate. The next steps are an anatomy scan on Thursday, OB appointments with the old clinic that is doing the scan and the clinic I had Luke through also on Thursday, Luke’s birthday party on Saturday and the fetal echocardiogram sometime in the next month.

Luke on the left L Baby on the Right