Thursday, August 23, 2012

Almost 23 weeks

We had our repeat Level 2 ultrasound this morning. Well, I did - my husband ended up being out of town on a last-minute business trip.

Everything looked normal. It was a different doctor (the same one who did my NT scan, but different from the one who did the Level 2 at 20 weeks) and she said everything looked normal. Based on the other doctor seeing something, she is recommending a third trimester ultrasound just to check in, and also suggested I could do bloodwork for CMV, parvo and toxiplasmosis just to rule out some other reasons why the bowel could have been 'somewhat echogenic' in the 20 week ultrasound. It's also possible, though unlikely, that when I had the bleed between 13 and 14 weeks that the baby swallowed a bit of the blood, which would show up as brighter.

She's a great doctor - really approachable and knowledgeable - the total opposite of the woman who did the 20 week ultrasound. This one even gave me her cell phone number in case I had more questions.

All the growth stuff is right on track. He's 1 pound, 4 oz. now, and right at the 50th percentile for size. He's measuring about 1-2 days ahead.


Not ideal that my husband couldn't make it, but I'm very thankful I got to call him with good news.


Usually he's really sleepy in the mornings and I don't feel him much. Well I guess the ultrasound probe being pushed around my belly woke him up because he was very active. It was the first time I could watch him move on screen and feel him move in my belly - really cool.


He's also a future gymnast or yoga instructor - check this out:



I didn't rotate it deliberately - he's head down, and during the ultrasound, folded himself in half. About 2 minutes earlier, his legs weren't in that position. Amazing!


I had my first unprovoked 'stranger' comment on my pregnancy today - my butcher said 'oh, by the way, congratulations!' while wrapping up my meat. Hee! I definitely notice lots of people looking at my belly, but I think most people are tactful (or have learned to be tactful) enough to not comment without being told I'm pregnant.

Every afternoon/evening, if I lie on the couch, I can watch my belly move around. Sometimes it ripples, which looks really strange. I'm hoping my husband can hear the heartbeat soon - I forget which site mentioned that should be possible. I'd like for him to have his special connection to the baby since it's the one thing I can't experience that he may be able to. He loves having his hand on my belly while we watch TV or a movie and is always surprised by how constant the movement is.

It's still surreal that I'm pregnant, and *this* pregnant. My baby shower is only about 6 weeks away (admittedly it's early - I gave a range of dates to the two women who are hosting it, and the one that worked best was the earliest), and we start taking classes in 4 weeks (first one is a CPR class).

I feel great, and have only gained about 8 pounds since the BFP. Sleep is sometimes ok, sometimes rough. I usually sleep well until I have to get up to pee, and then sometimes fall right back asleep and sometimes toss and turn. The only other weird symptom I've had is that the inside of my belly button was weirdly squishy the other night. I'm guessing the baby must have been putting pressure on it in some weird angle. Oh, and my uterus definitely goes above my belly button now because I'm feeling kicks above it.

We also finally announced on Facebook that we're expecting. Got lots of great notes, including a few from people who shared they'd also dealt with infertility while trying to have kids. (I'm open about infertility on FB, and was in the status update wherein we announced the pregnancy.)

Ordered the crib and dresser and light for the nursery. Already have the rug. About to order the glider once the fabric swatches I requested arrive. So crazy!

I found a doula (who isn't pregnant - the first two I tried to hire are pregnant and not taking clients). Feeling productive. :) And our next OB appointment is next week (currently they're every 4 weeks - they'll start being every 2 weeks in late October).

Sunday, August 5, 2012

20 weeks

Yesterday was 20 weeks - amazing! Even though people call this the halfway point, it isn't really. We didn't know we were pregnant until 16 weeks ago, so I think we have 2 more weeks to halfway. That said, it's still a good milestone.

On Wednesday we had our Level 2 ultrasound (which my husband was able to attend). Everything looked great (and the little guy moved all over the place - the tech even said 'wow, he's speedy'), except that the doctor said the bowel was 'somewhat echogenic'. She was not a good communicator - she said it's often a fluke but can be a sign of Down's or cystic fibrosis. When I provided the information that we screened the embryos with CGH so we're quite confident there's no trisomy, and everyone screened negative for cystic fibrosis, she decided we didn't need to talk to a genetic counselor and that we should just go back in 3 weeks. But she didn't give us any data about what % of echogenic bowels are flukes, what the risk factors are given the CGH/negative CF screening etc. I wasn't particularly worried, but my husband was stressed out.

I was amused that when she mentioned cystic fibrosis, my immediate thought was that my husband and I both screened negative for it. Which is true, but is less relevant than the donor and my husband screening negative - also true. I guess my brain has faded out the donor pretty effectively!

We did look at the placenta in the Level 2 ultrasound, and it's moved away from the cervix, so I no longer have to worry about placenta previa - yay!

We had an ob appointment on Friday, and talked to the doctor (not my ob but his partner - starting with the next appointment we see my ob) about it. He said not to worry at all about it. That as an isolated finding, given all the screenings we've done, it's extremely unlikely to be anything.

He also measured the placenta positioning, and the edge is now 35mm away from the cervix, which is great (less than 20 mm is considered placenta previa). So no more activity restrictions, and no more pelvic rest. So last night we had sex for the first time in more than 6 weeks - yay!

Next appointment is the repeat Level 2 ultrasound on August 23, and my next ob appointment is August 30.

I'm feeling the baby move throughout the day. My husband has felt him move a bunch of times now, and is always startled by it. So cute!

The vacation in Hawaii was very mellow - super reassuring to feel movement every day, since we didn't have the doppler with us. I will suggest not getting smushed by a wave, though - we were playing in the waves at one beach, and the surf was higher than it had been earlier in the week. I got knocked over by a big wave, and scraped my breast on the sand. Ow ow ow. Like road rash, right above my ni.pple. Not recommended....

Went to a baby shower for a family member yesterday, and it was really fun to be pregnant. A couple of other pregnant women, and a lot of couples with baby boys (no baby girls, oddly).  It was the first time we've seen a lot of these family/friends since we announced we were pregnant, so that was fun too. I do seem to feel the need to tell people when I meet them that we worked for a long time for this pregnancy. And when people ask if we know the gender, I often use that to mention that we did IVF, and we've known the gender the whole time.

Sending love out to the blog- and twitter-verse. Too much bad news recently, and so many of are constantly in my thoughts. xoxo