Week 20 Update

 

 

 

 

 

This week felt like a milestone week! 20 weeks: most women's half-way mark (less for me -- hoping for another 18 weeks!), anatomy scan, and only a few more weeks until viability. Yay. (Today I am officially 20 weeks and 2 days.)

 

Maybe it is the minor cold that I have but I have found myself feeling a little blah this week (can you see it in the pictures above?). I find myself huffing and puffing after simple tasks like changing my clothes, putting on my compression stockings (yay for those in the summer!), and even just lying in bed. Some nasal congestion combined with lost space for my diaphragm to expand and I guess that isn't too surprising. I find myself groaning to get off the couch or up from lying down. Is it the extra weight or my stretched out core muscles (?), because inertia definitely is getting me down. An object at rest wants to stay at rest! Or in my case, this pregnant lady just really can't seem to get off the couch (without help?)!

 

The past few days my belly seems to be feeling tighter. I was glad to make it into work when I started feeling compressed the last 20 minutes of my morning commute today. I keep wondering just how big am I in comparison to a singleton pregnancy? I keep feeling like I am third trimester big already and I guess I probably am as the recommended weight gain for a normal pregnancy is 25-35 pounds and I am almost to 25 already!

 

Best of all, we got to meet our babies again at our 20 week ultrasound! I haven't felt much of the babies yet so despite my ever expanding size, sometimes I still wonder if they are really still in there. Luckily, they still are! Not only are they there, but they are much bigger than before and seem to have all of their parts (okay, so technically they didn't confirm baby A's feet, but I'm taking those on faith). And my cervix is still long, which may seem like a weird thing to mention but when you have multiple babies in there it is a big relief to hear! I don't want them popping out too early, we three still have a long way to go until it is time to meet.

 

 

Week 20 day 0:

Blood pressure: 124/73

Weight: 164.2 lbs (home), 166.8 lbs (office)

Total Weight Gain: 22.2 lbs

Cervix: 4.4 cm

 

Babies:

Baby A: FHR 163; 12 oz (63 percentile)

Baby B: FHR 142; 12 oz (63 percentile)

Symptoms:

evening tiredness

arm/hand pain and some numbness -- much more manageable this week!

gagging and vomiting after brushing my teeth (decreased)

minor hand and foot swelling (continues)

gastric reflux (new), burping (getting worse) -- horrible, horrible burping (I probably shouldn't admit that!)

increasing discomfort -- it's getting hard to move from a sitting position, shortness of breath at times, feeling big and tight in the belly