Pregnancy Update - 20 weeks - Little Man 2

My very first pregnancy update! I wish that I had started this earlier, but better late than never :)

Here is my bump this week. Yes, I am huge, I feel like I look like I am already 5 or 6 month pregnant. No, I am not having twins (we have had 3 ultrasounds, we are sure). I am just on my second pregnancy and it happens :). I probably could have started taking pictures at 8-12 weeks, but I held off because I wasn't sure I wanted the photographic evidence plus Mr Random and I are really bad at consistently getting photographs. Oh and by the way, the reason for my showing so much so early is not because I have been eating too much. My weight gain has been reasonable so far (way better than last time) so I am pretty sure this time it is mostly baby. I am actually pretty proud of myself because I have gained less already than I did the entire first trimester last time.

The nausea is finally starting to go away, I think. I had nausea way worse this time. Last time the nausea only lasted 12 weeks. This time it has hung on tenaciously. I had a random spurt of nausea just last week. And I don't expect the food aversions to go away, although who knows, this whole pregnancy has been completely different, maybe that will be different too.

We had a doctor appointment this week. Because it was the 20 week appointment we had the fun anatomy scan ultrasound. We found out we are having another boy! I am a little nervous about this because boys are still somewhat a mystery to me. I absolutely love Little Man, but he is still little, he doesn't seem too boy like yet. I don't get the interest in cars and vehicles, and bugs (no bugs, please, no bugs) and destruction. Mr Random had a brother and I have heard stories about destruction in their house including holes in walls. I had one brother and two sisters, trust me there were no holes in our walls, and wrestling was fairly tame. But I am excited for Little Man to have the opportunity to have a brother. I hope that they will be as close as my sisters and I (we fought a lot but loved even more). And as much as I love Little Man I wouldn't mind having another one of him :)

We also found out the placenta has moved! I was diagnosed with placenta previa at 10 weeks after having a little spotting. We have been praying ever since that it would move. For those who haven't heard about placenta previa it is when the placenta is covering the cervix. This is dangerous because many things can cause the placenta to be disturbed and bleed, and if you bleed too much it can cause harm to the baby, including possibly a miscarriage. Because of that I was put on total pelvic rest and modified bed rest with conditions including no heavy lifting, no fun stuff, and at the 16 week appointment we were told no shopping/ walking around an entire store. But now that the placenta has moved all of the restrictions have been lifted and we don't have to worry about that danger any more. Right now the placenta is still low lying and if it doesn't move we would have to have a c-section, but I am still early in the pregnancy so the chances that it won't move are very low.

They also drew some blood to check my thyroid levels (I have hypothyroidism so they are keeping an eye on it) and I have to say I was not super impressed with the lab tech. I have always hated having needles of any form put in me (except the epidural needle, that one I was very happy about) so I don't blame her for that. But after I got home I noticed that there was a huge painful lump right above where she had drawn the blood. Why would there be a lump? She didn't put anything in, she took something out. It continued to be painful all night, and the next day it turned into a very dark bruise, which is still painful, just less so. I don't understand why that happened from a blood draw, it wasn't where the needle went in, or even where she pulled the blood from, I can see the line where the needle was and I saw which direction it went in. Anyways that was a little annoying, but on the whole the appointment was very good!

My hips are starting to hurt again. With Little Man I was carrying so low that by the end of the pregnancy I could barely walk. It was like my hips were grinding together, very painful. I can feel it coming on again, and I am trying to ward it off, but there was only so much I could do when I wasn't allowed to exercise. I am hoping to do some more now that the restrictions are lifted, and we will see if it helps.

I have also started to feel the baby move, that is always fun. He has had hiccups twice this week. Little Man had hiccups a lot so I knew what it felt like (repeated, rhythmic kicking in the same spot) but one of the times of hiccups was really weird. He must have been right against my side because I could feel the little shudder after each hiccup.

So all in all a pretty good week!


What about you? Are any of you pregnant? If so how is your week going? If not, have you been pregnant, or has your wife been pregnant? Did you deal with any of this?