19 weeks, 6 days

In a lot of ways, this pregnancy has been a whirlwind, and in a lot of ways, time has stood still, refusing to move forward. I am very, very definitely pregnant, as every passerby seems determined to remind me, but it still doesn't feel even a little bit real, even as Baby A, the little brat, keeps punching me in my cervix. If you didn't know, that really, really, really hurts when they do that.

Pre-Natal Appointment
My ultrasound last week was also my first "prenatal" appointment with the perinatologist, which is to say, it's official. I'm OB-less. My records have all transferred over, my OB knows I won't be back until my post-partum checkup, I have only one set of doctors, and I am breathing a tremendous sigh of relief. I love my OB. I'm sad to leave his office and the comfort and safety net that I feel there, but I'm happy to have the comfort and safety net of having only one set of extraordinarily competent doctors to coordinate with. I'm very confident in the care I'll be receivig there, and that's what matters. S0 in addition to everything else, I got to meet with a nurse to fill out all the OB paperwork and background stuff... medications I'm taking, GYN history, surgical history, allergies, etc. Somehow I failed to mention that I'd had a D&C in October... whoops. But I did clear that up today. She was very nice and she gave me her card with her direct number and told me she doesn't mind if I call with dumb questions because she's always happy to tell me it's nothing to worry about... those are the easy calls.

White Coat Syndrome
I never really thought I get nervous in doctor's offices, but my blood pressure had started to worry me a bit as it's been consistently on the high side at my OB's office. While it was slightly lower at the perinatology office, it was still elevated. I have a history of low blood pressure, so I found this pretty shocking. So, we bought a sphygmomanometer for the house. My husband has very high blood pressure and needed one anyway, and he's got large arms and mine aren't tiny either, so part of my theory is that they were using the wrong sized cuff at the doctor's office. I was quite correct. My resting blood pressure at home is consistently fine, averaging about 110/65. My pulse, on the other hand, is through the roof no matter where I am, and no matter what I do to try to calm it down. I assume this is a normal side effect of pregnancy, what with the significantly increased blood volume and all, but I keep forgetting to ask my nurse about it and my google-fu is failing to completely soothe me (though a re-check with Dr. Google does seem to suggest an increase in pulse may be normal, I can't seem to find a RANGE of normal).

Ultrasound: Fetal Anatomy
The ultrasound also went well. My cervix is miraculously holding steady. The placenta previa is moving out of the way, though it's still not completely resolved. Baby A is right on top of my cervix, spending his or her spare time punching the living daylights out of my cervix. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but it HURTS LIKE THE DICKENS when he/she does that! They did the fetal anatomy on Baby A and Baby C (Dr. M did Baby B the previous week). I did not love the sonographer. She was pushy and was irritated that I was doing it "so early" (fetal anatomy is usually done around 20 weeks... I was 19 weeks, 1 day). She also was pissed off that the doctor had already done Baby B and only wanted Baby A done this week. The doctor had specifically NOT wanted me laying on my back for an hour and a half of torture for no good reason, when they could easily spread the appointments out. The sonographer said, "no, that's stupid. It's better to do them all at once and the moms never mind because they get to see their babies." Except, hello? I kind of minded! I was in pain. I had a pounding migraine. I was having contractions. My hips were killing me. My legs kept falling asleep. And she kept pushing down so hard I wanted to jump off the table!

That being said, she did an excellent job and showed me everything very clearly and answered all my questions and made sure I always knew exactly what she was measuring and why. Even if she DID keep referring to them as "my babies" (meaning hers, not mine, which is so not okay), she did do a great job. And she managed to not take a peak at any tell-tale signs of the babies' sexes, which is also good. So I can't entirely fault her. And besides, it might have just been pregnancy hormones, right? I continue to be astounded at the level of detail that can be seen with just a few concentrated soundwaves. Seriously, all my babies have kidneys and bladders and four chambers of their hearts and cerebellums and stomachs and how weird is that? They could tell that none have a cleft palate. They could see the blood flow through the heart. It's all just so unbelievably weird.

Movement and Pregnancy Symptoms
I do feel the babies moving, or at least Baby A. I think I might also feel Baby B, but Baby C doesn't move much, being all squished up in the corner. Baby a does so make his/her presence known though. Beyond that, I've got all the normal pregnancy symptoms. I'm still popping Zofran like candy so that I can keep food down. Except now I have a new nemesis to keeping food down: heartburn, and boy is it rotten! So now I'm also popping Tums and Zantac like they're candy. Yum! Oh and that mysterious thing called "round ligament pain"?? I always read about that in pregnancy books and thought, "yeah, right. Like I'll ever be able to distinguish that from all the other aches and pains I've got!" I admit it, I was wrong. Very, very wrong. Holy mother of um, frodo, this is very, very distinctive, unmistakeable pain! Oh, and I found out today that, shock of shocks, I have a UTI. So a week of antibiotics for me.

Uneventful is GOOD
Mostly, however, I'm having a pretty uneventful pregnancy, for which I am very grateful. I am still able to work, much to my shock. I am pretty restricted in other activity and my doctor's deal with me is that if I want to work that means that when I'm home I'm in bed or in the recliner doing nothing, which is torture, but better than being on full bedrest, as I'm sure Suzanne can attest to! I still haven't gained an ounce (I'm down somewhere between 15-17 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight), but my doctor isn't worried. My wedding/engagement rings are loose when I'd figured that they'd be too tight to wear by now. As uncomfortable as I am, the babies are all growing exactly the way they're supposed to, they all have "textbook-perfect" anatomy scans, and I'm not in pre-term labor. What more could a girl ask for?

Some of your comments
1. Rachel Inbar noted that I haven't said much about my foster son, J, lately. I don't talk about him too much here, except in the abstract, because this blog is really about infertility and now pregnancy after infertility, but also because it is a public blog and I don't really want his mother tracking this blog down. But generically speaking, he'll be four in September and we'll have had him three years in October. He continues to astound us both with his ability to absorb the world around him and his ability to express love and compassion for the people in his life. He's very excited to be a soon-to-be-big-brother, and tells everyone who will listen "I'm going to be a big brother! My Eema* has free** babies in her belly!"

*"Eema" means mother in Hebrew. Other ways to transliterate the word include Ima, Ema, and um, probably some other ways. I personally prefer Ima, but I've found that with a non-Jewish audience, Eema is the most intuitive way, even if my Jewish readers look at it and think it looks odd.

**Free meaning three, of course.

2. I've gotten several new comments from two distinct categories of bloggers: bloggers who have just found out they are expecting triplets (all of whom are taking the news more gracefully than I did at first!), and bloggers who have their own triplets. This is exciting for me, as it seems that I now belong to TWO distinct blogging communities now... infertility bloggers and parents of triplets/multiples bloggers. I suppose this means I ought to split up my blog roll so that poor, unsuspecting infertility bloggers don't stumble upon something they didn't mean to. I'm a bit too busy at the moment to take care of that detail, but I'm TRYING to make a notation next to the blogger's name if it's a triplet/multiple blog. I hope that helps.

3. Suzanne asked where I get my google stats from. I answered her directly so I could get credit for Mel's Commentathon, but the rest of you may be interested as well. I use http://www.statcounter.com/ (there's also an icon in my sidebar that will take you there) because it's free and contains all the stats I want (primarily the keyword analysis). I got over 500 individual hits yesterday which astounds me. Seriously, I'm not that interesting, people!

4. I'm going to the DC-Metro area Get Together for Infertility Bloggers that's been arranged by LJ. Some of you may have seen some comments in my last post about this. Mel talked me into it, even though I'm an unbelievably shy person in real life with serious social anxiety about meeting up with a bunch of people I've never met. One-on-one? No problem. Eight at once? Good heavens, I wish valium weren't contraindicated in pregnancy. Mostly, I hope that no one is bothered by the pregnant chick at the table. I mean, I know I'm pregnant after infertility, so I'm not like a total leper or anything, but still. I could understand my presence making people uncomfortable. There's also the bit about the fact that I keep kosher, so I will be casually sipping a drink (nonalcoholic, bummer), which doesn't bother me a bit, but often makes others uncomfortable, but that's a whole different matter, which is just going to have to be someone else's problem and not mine. At any rate, despite all the anxiety, I'm really looking forward to it! You know, if I don't chicken out.

5. A couple people have asked me recently about my migraine status. I thought I was down to about 4 migraines a week, but when I looked back at my spreadsheet (yes, I really am that kind of anal... maybe THAT'S why I get migraines...) I'm actually at 5 per week on average. That being said, it's still an improvement over 6-7 per week. And about 2-3 per week are responding to Tylenol with Codeine, which is also an improvement. The Codeine doesn't resolve the migraine completely, but it takes the pain level down to a manageable level some of the time now, which is a huge, huge, huge improvement. I'm still definitely looking forward to the day when I'm not pregnant and I can up my Topamax dosage. Or maybe they'll let me do it sooner. That would be nice, even if it's unlikely. It's sad to say it, but 4-5 per week really IS a vast improvement, and it's good enough for me at the moment.

Um, there was a bunch of other stuff I wanted to write about, but it's all escaping me right now, and besides, this is long enough. Besides, I need to go looking for some Tums. Because they are like candy to me now. Only less satisfying.