20 Weeks

20 Weeks! Halfway again. Or, it would be halfway if I were having a singleton pregnancy.

This week we change the way we measure the babies: we're going from head to rump to head to toe measurements. They babies should be about 10 inches now, and about 10.5 ounces--about the size of a banana. They are practicing swallowing and starting to produce meconium.

Sorry, the kids ate all the bananas so you are stuck with my frozen smoothie/ice cream bananas. Also, I'm not sure if I still have toes but since I can mostly walk without falling down I am assuming so.

Said bananas were extremely cold, and Shane was not happy to have to hold them. Also, both kids were having an apple when I wanted to take these pictures so here you see my ten seconds they gave me to snap a picture.

Waaaaay back in my 13 week update I talked a little bit about how uneasy I felt through much of my first trimester, knowing how many things could go wrong. I was thinking this morning about how much that's changed, about how I feel so relaxed about this pregnancy now and confident that things will be ok. Peace that passes all understanding, for sure! It also helps that I can feel regular movement now. Goals for the pregnancy are to stay off bedrest, make it to full term, have to babies that don't have to spend time in the NICU, and deliver both vaginally. Lofty maybe, but what's life without goals!

The most exciting part of the week for me is that I started feeling movement from the outside last Thursday (19 weeks 1 day)! So cool. On Sunday I even videoed them moving but it's not very clear. I think I'm feeling them both although I always feel the movement really low while I can feel the hard lump of one somersaulting high on my right side, often even wedging into my right ribcage. Because of that I've wondered several times if righty has an anterior placenta and I'm really only feeling movement from one baby, so I guess we'll find out at my anatomy scan next week. Nathan still hasn't felt them because he's never in bed with me during their busy time. 

In way less thrilling news, I took my three hour glucose test last Friday. The three hour test is more complicated than the one hour: you fast after midnight, get a blood draw, drink 100mL of the most disgusting straight sugar in a drink you've ever tasted, and then get your blood drawn three more times. The first hour, I was sick to my stomach, dizzy, shaky, and "high". The second hour was mostly ok. The third hour I crashed, could barely keep my eyes open, and by the last fifteen minutes my ears were ringing, I started having tunnel vision, and I knew I was going to pass out soon. I kept telling myself, just get through or you'll have to do this again. Just get through. I laid there with my eyes shut until my timer rang for the last blood draw, walked to the lab as slowly and carefully as possible, and sat down. The lady asked if I as okay and asked her to take my blood as quickly as possible and get me a juice! She got me a juice and some crackers and I sat in the waiting room for a little while until I was able to see clearly. I was pretty wiped out for the day after that...it's such an unrealistic test, if you ask me.

To sandwich the bad between the good, I also found a maternity swimsuit that fits and has plenty of room to grow in the tummy, managed to get WIC, and took a tour of the Labor and Delivery Unit at our hospital. I was encouraged to hear that the nurse giving the tour is also a Doula (and the Doula certifier for our area!) as well as being one of the two hospital lactation consultants. I think it would be a huge boon to have her as my nurse, so I'll be praying for that! In trying to see the positive, I think that the benefit of delivering in an L&D unit associated with a midwife run birth center is that the nurses are used to working with midwives and tend to do things and be open to doing things more naturally. For example, during the tour we were told the the nurses encourage movement and position changes during labor. There were several other things we were told that were great, and I also like that they really focus on giving mommy/daddy/baby a lot of bonding time before they start doing the weighing and the bathing and all that business. They've even recently changed policy so that even C-Section moms are getting immediate skin to skin with their babies. (Obviously, everything I'm saying is based on maternal/fetal health). I still am struggling with the loss of they birth experience I had desired and birthing in a hospital, but I am praying desperately that I can still have good birth experience along with my healthy babes.

And for my final good news, I don't have gestational diabetes! I still haven't gotten a call from the office, but I remembered tonight that I could check if my results were in through the patient portal. All of my numbers were nice and low (but in a normal range), except the final number. You know, from the blood drawn as I was blacking out? Yeah, that number is 39. Normal would be from 65-139. That explains a lot! They have the final result highlighted, notated as PANIC LOW, and starred underneath as **verified by repeat analysis**. I find these results vindicating, and a confirmation that they high number from my one hour truly was user error. Glory Hallelujah! On to repeating the same test in seven weeks!