Pregnancy update; 16-20 weeks {Baby Elf}

Hello friends,
So, since we last spoke a fair bit has happened in regards to my pregnancy. So let’s dive right into it!

Pregnancy news;

• We have found out the gender which I think I’ll announce on here next week or very shortly, so stay tuned!
• I had a 4D scan done, that was different – I never had one with LuLu.
• Towards the end of July when I was 18 weeks pregnant, we went to a birthday party for LuLu’s best little friend, it was her first time attending a proper birthday party so she was so excited. We were there barely an hour and suddenly I got super intense and bad pain in my right side that radiated into my back, like it was bad enough that I wanted to basically collapse but I went to the bathroom and tried to breathe through the pain and just keep myself together. I wasn’t doing anything crazy to bring the pain on, just standing in one spot cutting out some decorations. I phoned my sister & spoke to my best friend about it & thought I may quickly go to the local hospital in that town to be checked out (we weren’t in our town, we were in a smaller town about 45 mins away) – I phoned the hospital and they weren’t that keen on seeing me as I was “only 18 weeks pregnant and they couldn’t do anything for me if I was losing my baby”. So that was lovely and just what you need to hear when you are pregnant with pain. I took some panadol & had some water, the pain did eventually subside – but this pain was bad when it was there but I knew I wasn’t losing my baby which is why I decided to stay – I took it very easy for the rest of the party and we were ready to leave if the pain intensified again. We enjoyed the party & left once the cake was cut and gifts were open and headed back to Toowoomba. Towards the end of the party the pain had started to return, but not as bad & I phoned the hospital I’ll be delivering at on the drive back home, I decided to go in just to be safe. LuLu was left with my parents & Trent and I went to the hospital. To be honest it was not an awesome experience when I first arrived, because I was under 20 weeks pregnant at the time the midwives didn’t really want to see me as once again I was told my pain was probably due to miscarriage & it wasn’t the right place for me – I knew I wasn’t miscarrying but I knew something wasn’t right. But thankfully my doctor insisted I was seen and my sister was also a great help in ensuring I be looked at. (It helps being related to a midwife!) If this was midweek I would’ve gone into my doctors surgery, but this was a Sunday so my only option was hospital.
• Thankfully I did go in as I ended up spending 2 nights in hospital. I had fairly constant pain & discomfort in my abdomen and also large traces of blood in my urine. They did find a kidney stone in my urine, so my pain & the blood was put down to kidney stones. I don’t know if that was the problem though, I had no issues using the bathroom & my ultrasounds for my kidneys were perfect. So UTI was ruled out as well.
• The following Friday (29/July) I had my morphology scan, where the gender was once again confirmed and our little Baby Elf was deemed “very healthy” – a perfect little baby.
• Yesterday (3/Aug) I had my OB appointment, after discussing with him and telling him since leaving hospital I am still in pain regularly through out each day, I am uncomfortable and I’m starting to get shooting/twinge like pain into my crotch area, as well as some pressure there – I have been diagnosed with an irritable uterus. Which for me is incredibly worrying. It can mean early labour – like very early or just a few weeks, but I am determined to keep my little Elf in and have my Christmas time baby. So whatever I can do to help myself, I will do. I have been advised to rest, a lot. No exercise, no strenuous activities, limit stress, no heavy lifting and try to take it easy. As for pain management, there isn’t much that I can take as my doctor informed me during that appointment that even panadol is no longer deemed safe in pregnancy. So to be on the safe side I will stop taking that (when I did take it, it was very occasionally and not a regular thing) and just use a warm (not hot) heat pack to help control my pain & discomfort. So that isn’t great, I am in pain regularly and have no real way to manage it. I have been given a script for some strong pain relief if I need it, but I am very cautious when taking medication especially when pregnant or breastfeeding – I don’t even paint my nails when I am pregnant! So I will just try and push through and find natural & drug free ways that help me handle the pain – the heat pack does help a bit so that’s good.

Symptoms;

• • The best way I can describe how I feel is, I feel 30+weeks pregnant when I am only just now 20 weeks pregnant. I feel slow, sore, exhausted and uncomfortable.
  • I am still incredibly nauseous & vomit pretty much every single morning at least once. I take zofran to manage this. I have tried going without it recently to see if I can, but by 10-10:30am I being sick pretty badly (as well as my normal straight out of bed be sick routine). So I think zofran & I maybe besties for the rest of this pregnancy.
  • Heartburn & reflux has started. Mainly in the evening & it doesn’t matter what I eat, a drink of water can cause it.
  • I get some pretty terrible headaches.
  • Exhaustion.
  • Nosebleeds.
  • Aching hips, knees & ankles. No legs cramps yet thankfully, I did experience those with LuLu but hopefully I may skip that symptom!
  • I am slow, I can barely keep up with Trent & LuLu lately.
  • Pretty intense abdominal pain on a regular basis, that can radiate around to my back.
  • Lower back pain.
  • Shooting/twinging/twitching type of pain from my abdomen down into my crotch area.
  • Some stomach tightenings.
  • Pressure and pain that comes & goes in my pelvis/crotch area. (Basically the area from my belly button down is being absolutely ridiculous!) 

I feel a bit down, I am in my second trimester I should be feeling pretty terrific. I should still have my energy & be able to keep up with Trent & LuLu, but I am struggling. I want to really enjoy these last few months as just the 3 of us but I’m not. I am either flat out exhausted or in pain. I hate being cooped up inside and doing nothing. I love getting out doing things, having a productive day and having fun. So the fact I can’t really do much of any of those things really has gotten to me a bit. The news of having an irritable uterus is also not great, as much as I’m not meant to stress – it is stressful. I don’t want to have my baby early, no one does. So I have to really make looking after Elf and I a huge priority. Other than just being frustrated at my own health, I am doing ok. I just wish I was well, I can deal with just “all day morning sickness” because I’ve been there before, I know how to manage it – but with all these other problems it is really effecting my day to day living and it has made me a bit down. This is all just recently happened though, so I am sure after I have had some time to process it all & just come to terms with it, I will be fine.

Bump & baby photos;

18 weeks, the day before I had to visit the hospital. This day was a lovely day at my family’s farm.

Baby Elf, growing bigger each week! 

A little sneak peek of what our baby Elf looks like, so adorable. I can see LuLu a lot in this little picture.