20 WEEKS (CANTALOUPE): Aug 14-20

Big week this week! Midwives, Ultrasound, Gender Reveal!! Sorry for the long post... :)

Purple top again... I didn't find my black tank top until the end of the week (shoved into the back of my drawer of course!)

• Oh my... we are halfway there! I cannot believe it! This is too much... 
• Baby is now 6.5 inches long, and as usual, every site says something different, but the consensus seems to be that baby is the size of a small cantaloupe. That seems large to me!
• Baby opens his/her eyes for the first time this week! Practice Practice Practice! 
• I feel like I've really popped over the last week. I figure this will happen every week until the end. I'll wake up feeling twice my size... I'm loving it. Well... David's loving it, which helps a lot with my confidence. 
• Baby is producing meconium, which will make up his/her first poop (hopefully) after delivery. Yum... 
• Websites say baby is surrounded by 320 mL of amniotic fluid at this point, which is approximately 1 degree higher than my body temperature.
• I am feeling much more consistent kicking/movement now. Sometimes it feels like little flutters, and somethings it feels like baby is practising some high-kicks in there!
• You may recall I felt baby for the first time (from the outside) on 19 weeks & 5 days. Since then, I was anxiously awaiting for David to feel too, so it could all be "real" to him. I think when I felt baby's big kick, it was baby turning around, so that his/her spine was facing out, and all kicks were going inwards. This caused me to feel very little movement for a couple days. The day I turned 20 weeks, I was determined to get baby moving again. I had a snack, drank some cold juice and water, and kind of wiggled my belly around on all fours. Haha! Funny image. David said even the dog was looking at me weird. I have zero idea if there is any scientific point to this, or if I was just being foolish, but it worked! I sat back down on the couch, and felt a couple little blips, and then I felt the roll. I told David to come sit by me, as I thought baby had rolled over. Less than 5 minutes later, I felt baby start kicking. I grabbed David's hand, put it on my belly, and right away the baby went crazy kicking his hand! The look on David's face was priceless. He'd been waiting for this moment for 4 and a half months! His eyes got all wide and his jaw just dropped. Then he couldn't get enough. Poking and prodding at my belly, feeling for the kick-back. 
• I was so aware after this, that we had both just felt our baby for the first time. That was the only time that was ever going to happen for the first time. We're trying really hard to enjoy this pregnancy, as future ones (God-willing) are going to be less novel, and we're going to be a whole lot busier! I am also trying not to take for granted the fact that so far pregnancy has been relatively easy and smooth for us. I know this is not the case for many people. 
• We feel so incredibly happy, excited and blessed. I don't know if struggling to get pregnant makes this all that much sweeter, or if this is all normal for first-time-moms. I haven't missed my Wellbutrin hardly at all, I haven't had any major anxiety (other than usual pregnancy worries), and I seem to handle conflict, changes of plans, and planning my weeks much better than ever before. 
• I am getting more and more excited for maternity leave every day. Almost time to start a count down!
• I've been noticing more cramping/discomfort in my lower abdomen. It just feels like round ligament pain I figure. Also, leg cramps are common in second trimester. I haven't had any killer ones, but I come close sometimes with calf and foot cramps. You know those crazy cramps that come out of no where and feel like you're dying? Yup... that's a pregnancy symptom... good times!
• My stamina/cardio seems to be decreasing. Not significantly, but I catch myself with a higher heart-rate than usual after climbing the stairs, or a hill when walking the dog. I imagine it's all downhill from here! Haha
• We had our midwife appointment on August 16 in the morning. David's mom is off work for summer vacation, so we invited her to join! I already figured everything was good with baby as I've been feeling him/her frequently, but it's always good to get a check-up! Here are the updates from this appointment
• Weight: 125 lb (gain of 2 lb. since first appointment)
• Uterus measurement (from pubic bone to fundus): 20cm - right on track
• Blood Pressure: 106/60 - still low, but high for me
• Baby's heart rate: 144 BPM 
• Here's a video we remembered to take of the heartbeat with the doppler in our appointment! It sounds like a horse galloping. Much different than the "whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh" of our last few appointments! I wonder if this is because there are more chambers in the heart now? I googled whether this was normal (even though google was the enemy) and stumbled across an old wives tale that says if heart sounds like a galloping horse it's a girl and if it sounds like a train, it's a boy. Wives tales are only 50% accurate, but they're fun!

About 30 seconds into the video, you see me wave my finger. That is me trying to tell David that the baby has been trying to kick the doppler away! Haha

• My belly-button is getting increasingly shallower. When I walk if I put my hand on my belly I can feel it pushing out... kind of gross! Haha
• I have been trying to teach David the relevant (scientifically accurate) terms so far. He's learning things like: lanugo, vernix, fundus, and meconium. I like that he can follow along in appointments and conversations when he knows the words. I try to keep him educated!
• Apparently having your ears plug up and be stuffy is a pregnancy symptom. I never would have thought the two could be related at all, but... I definitely have it! I'll be talking to someone and all of a sudden all I can hear is my own voice! Mostly my right ear, but very strange. 
• We had our big detailed ultrasound on August 19 at Medray Imaging in Coquitlam. My technician was awesome, and made sure I was comfortable and would answer any questions I asked (although I didn't think of many in the moment). I didn't look at the screen as much as I would have liked, because I was afraid of seeing the gender (particularly as David wasn't there for the first while). At the appointment, the tech got all the measurements and scans done, except some measurements/photos of the head and face. baby was face down with the face pressed into my placenta (lovely eh...) and with hands blocking the face, making it impossible to see. She had me get up to walk around for 5 minutes, go to the bathroom, etc. to see if we could get baby to move. Came back...nope... okay. let's try some planks on the bed/table thing. Not working? Try it again and wiggle around a bunch... still no? Okay, let's tilt the bed... nope! Baby was super snuggly in there, and stubborn as can be! I had to get up a couple more times, once for 10 minutes or so and wiggle and jiggle my belly around as much as possible trying to get baby to shift. I tried everything... different moves, positions, pushing around on my belly... finally, after 45 minutes of appointment, baby moved enough for tech to finish scan. Haha!
  
  David was allowed to come in for the end of the appointment, but because the first part took so long, we didn't get to see too much or for too long at the end. We saw baby stretching and yawning, pursing his/her lips, kicking around, and doing other baby-like things. SUPER CUTE! The tech showed us the head, heart, spine, feet, bum, but avoided the crotchal region. I feel sort of like next time maybe we'd like to find out in the ultrasound appointment, so the tech can show us what we're looking at, and so that we're not afraid to accidentally see anything... 
  
  Anyway, we got a couple pictures from the ultrasound, but because baby was so smushed and uncooperative, they're not great. Here is the side-profile of our baby. Tech said everything looked good, so we will assume that unless we hear from our midwives, everything with baby is great and healthy! That's great news! Baby's heart rate at beginning of the appointment was 135 BPM. Lowest we've seen, but we were both relaxed (and baby seemed to be sleeping soundly) at the time. The tech also informed me my placenta is on the front wall of my uterus, so it is likely masking lots of the movement... COULD HAVE FOOLED ME!

Here is our bad photo of our beautiful, loved baby! At least we got a cute shot of the face! Amy pointed out that it looks like the eyes are open and we can see the eyelashes! David thinks baby has my nose :) What a little nugget!!!

Stay tuned for the big Gender Reveal!!!