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