Bumpdate 23 Weeks

Well, now we've gone and done it!

We had our 23 week OB visit on Monday, followed by a cervix check on Tuesday. At our OB visit, a few things were decided based on the "borderline" cervical measurement from last week.

1. I am not to be traveling- if something were to happen, I would have the best chance of getting the best and most appropriate care from our team at our hospital because they know me and have all the records (as well as a plan for what to do if something did go wrong.)

2. I have been "upgraded" from "intermediate" risk to "high" risk. Yippee! In some ways, this was a bummer (who wants to be told they are high risk?) but in other ways, it's totally cool. High risk was managing the cervical checks, but intermediate risk was managing ME, so it was a little difficult to know who was in charge or who my main "point person" was. This way, we are down to one service line, and since high risk will be following us the rest of the pregnancy, concerns about low amniotic fluid levels will be easily managed. Hopefully.

3. I freak out when people bring up the "V" word. Not in the doctor's office, but at home. And I am thankful I have a husband who knows what to do when I am on the verge of loosing it. (I will post about the V word later...)

On Tuesday, we had much better news:) My cervical length INCREASED from 2.3 cm to 2.7 cm!!!! This is, I am assuming, fairly rare (I don't know, because part of controlling the freak out is NOT consulting Google, much as I may want to:) This doesn't mean that we are out of the woods, it just means that we are good for now. We will have one more cervical length measurement next week, and again we will make decisions based on that measurement.

We won't be doing more cervical length measurements after the 24th week, because at that time it becomes a matter of "pre-term" labor rather than cervical incompetence (which, in this particular case, seems to me to be a matter of semantics, but whatever...) This is especially irritating because I have been having contractions, and we are not sure if they are related to the cervical changes or not... if they are, then it is considered "pre-term labor" after the 24th week, as "labor" is contractions that result in cervical change (which is why "false labor" is false... it's contractions that don't result in cervical change.) So I guess I will be asking a lot of questions at our next appointment. I mean, without routine cervical checks, how do I know when I should be concerned about my contractions? Some of them have been pretty intense (and that is saying a lot considering I KNOW what contractions feel like... what triple-peaking-never-ending-only-30-seconds-between-them-and-no-pain-meds-to-take-the-edge-off contractions feel like. How do I know when to call the doctor? Very frustrating. And definitely a semantic discussion far too detailed for me.

In other pregnancy news.... I am feeling, well, huge. And heartburny. I can feel the Nugget doing all sorts of yoga or Pilate's or something, and let me tell you, my diaphragm doesn't like it! As a matter of fact, the assaults on my diaphragm are probably why I am so heartburny- I probably have a hernia now! I also have some very beauteous swelling in my ankles when I work all day, despite my industrial strength lederhosen.

Anna things that if the Nugget is a girl, we should call her Abigail. So that both of her sisters are named Abigail. Easy enough to remember, I guess:)

Abigail took one look at me on Wednesday and said "Wow, your belly has gotten bigger!" Granted, she hadn't seen me since Sunday afternoon (spending time with her grandparents) and I was wearing a new maternity shirt that did increase the appearance of my bump, but still... it kind of made me feel, well, huger than I was already feeling.

One of the girls at work said she things I am having a boy, because I "still look the same." She as following the adage that girls steal your beauty and boys steal your energy. She said I looked good (thanks:) but was always saying how tired I am. And so it must be a boy. John is stoked and finally has an old wives' tale that he can put some stock into:)

My grandma is becoming a bit forgetful. Which, at nearly 90, is okay. My mom told her that I was pregnant at the end of my first trimester when we officially announced it to the world (or at least to the rest of our family, co-workers, and Facebook/Interneters.) When my mom told her I would not be coming out to Chicago at the end of the month, she acted as though that were Totally New Information (think: Phoebe on Friends) and claimed she didn't even know I was pregnant. Um, okay:)

Oh, hahahahah! The joke's on John! The doc said Monday that any unnecessary "wear and tear" on my cervix should be avoided. That means John has more than just a 6 week post-partum wait... he has the rest of the pregnancy (however long that is) PLUS the 6 weeks post-partum! He thinks that by accepting this and not fighting against this new edict, it will inevitably force nature to prolong the pregnancy as long as possible, just to test his resolve (reverse psychology, maybe?). Yeah, we'll see:) For now, he is getting an awful lot of teasing from his parents. His mom told him that this is what he gets for knocking me up so quickly. My mom thinks that this is what he gets for thinking that now that he's married he gets to do "it" ALL THE TIME. And at the risk of over-sharing, I will say that sometimes I think this is God having mercy on my poor, exhausted body... I feel way less guilty about going straight to bed every night since our options for evening entertainment have been limited to Netflixing the BBC version of Robin Hood, playing with the cats, and voting for Jose on So You Think You Can Dance.

In all honesty, though, this has really made me appreciate my hubby on a whole other level, because he has not made me feel bad about any of the restrictions (travel/vacation, work, sex, or anything else that might come up) the way some guys have been known to guilt their ladies. In fact, he is nothing but supportive of my and the Nugget's health and well-being, even if it means working harder and crazier hours to save up for a very unpredictable future, while knowing that all that waits for him at home is an ever-expanding wife who has managed to zap the "honeymoon phase" out of the first year of our marriage. I love that guy.