Pregnancy: 19th week

Week 19
February 21 - 27

This week has been full of suckiness, as well as awesomeness. From my previous post about my medical drama, it started at the end of week 18 and has been spanning into this week. Monday was honestly the worst, and every day after that has included some pain, but not nearly approaching what I had that first day. So that's good at least. I'm finding that if I'm leaning back for an extended period of time, or laying flat on my back, it acts up. And if it acts up, I can't lay on my right side, as it hurts more. Stomach is just uncomfortable, so left side it is. Standing and walking around does not help, nor does sitting straight up. Ah, limitations.

I had my 20 week ultrasound on Thursday, with my 20 week checkup right after, so I'll report what my doctor said first, and then go to the good news of the ultrasound. As of the time of my appointment, she'd only gotten the charts from my first ER visit on Monday, so she didn't have all the info she needed. But from that first report, what me & DH were telling her and from her physical check of the area, her best guess is that I have hydronephrosis. That's where the ureter is blocked somewhere (in my case, it's probably the weight of the uterus & baby pinching it shut sometimes, and opens back up as baby moves) and causes urine to backup into the kidney, which then causes the kidney to swell. That swelling would be the cause of the pain. But when I had my ultrasound on Tuesday, the ultrasound tech said that he didn't see any urine blockages or urine backups. So maybe the ureter was open then? I don't know how that works. Anyway, we told my doctor that, and it made her mystified because everything points to it, except for the ultrasound. So she was going to call the hospital and bug them to get my new files to her and then she'll re-evaluate once she's seen them. I expect a call within a few days about it.

On to the ultrasound! I was so looking forward to it the whole week before, but then my drama happened and I was nervous about it, because I knew that laying on my back could trigger more pain & vomiting. But I think the baby was higher up, so it wasn't really a problem. I did take some Tylenol before just in case though. The first surprise was that the baby is up past my belly button, and is heads up. I'd had it in my mind that it was sideways. And second surprise was how active it was... and I didn't feel any of it. I've felt a lot of movement prior, so I'd assumed I'd be feeling most of it now. Not the case.

The tech spent a lot of time measuring various things, and all the while we got to watch. She did a really good job explaining what she was doing, too. I've heard that some techs won't let you watch and they don't say hardly anything. So we're lucky to get a nice one. She had us look away when it came time for her to measure the bladder and whatever else they check out though, since we'd requested to not know the gender. It was a good thing, too, because apparently our baby is not shy about showing the goods. She said it'd be really easy to tell since it was spreadeagled. Now whether that means it'd be easy because it has a penis, or whether it'd be easy because of a lack of a penis, I don't know. I do know I didn't peek, even though I was tempted. DH tells me he didn't peek either, but when he says it, he has a shifty look on his face that tells me that maybe he did. If he did, just as long as he doesn't slip up, I don't care.

But our baby IS shy about showing the face. She only got one good head-on shot, and that was a shot to show the bone structure of the head. So our baby looks like an alien. It didn't want to cooperate when it came to the profile pic either. The best one we got was just as it started to turn away. Same thing when the tech tried to get a 3D face shot. No go. She did get a good shot of a foot though. It's cute.

DH finally felt a little thump from the baby, and my belly is starting to pop and I'm excited about it, even if it does mean that moving around is super painful and that the result of a bigger baby might be more sitting on a ureter. I've got a full stock of drugs to see me through. :)