23 Weeks with Emelia: L & D, we have to stop meeting like this

When I was 31 weeks with Olivia, I went to the labor and delivery unit for… leakage. I didn’t know what to call it. Anyway, you can read about that, but Saturday, the day Queso reached 23 weeks gestation, I found myself in a similar situation with her.

We had been at a craft fair that morning and the humidity was high, so I was understandably soaked in sweat, because this is pregnancy and this is all I pretty much do anymore besides pee myself and eat corn dogs. We were leaving Subway where we had stopped for lunch on the way home and I randomly felt between my legs because, well, I was feeling sweaty.

And my whole crotch was damp. Crap. I didn’t panic like I did when this happened with Olivia because actually, my first thought was this was nothing to be concerned about, but still. One never quite relaxes while pregnant after infertility. I told Chris and said I probably needed to go in and be checked to rule out this was amniotic fluid. The day before, I had felt some extra wetness, but sort of dismissed it, but having it happen the next day too — well, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

We got home and I changed, doing the sniff test to my shorts, but no. Definitely wasn’t pee. Could be a whole embarrassing amount of sweat, but couldn’t rule out any other sort of bad fluid.

Pregnancy is wrought with weird things leaking out of you.

So Chris put Olivia down for a nap (we were going to still try to make it to the water park later that afternoon) and I got in the car and drove to the Mom Baby Center.

The labor and delivery unit

I had to get registered there, and then luckily only waited a few minutes before a triage nurse came out to bring me back. I had to give a urine sample and then changed into a gown and slipped the belly band around me so they could monitor Queso.

The nurse said at 23 weeks it was harder to monitor the babies because they could move around so much. Queso decided to give her a run for her money. She finally got it mostly, and we spent the better part of an hour listening to the FRANTIC kicking and karate-chopping of my widdle miracle who knew full well she was being monitored.

“Some babies, I swear, they know when the monitor is on,” the nurse said, shaking her head, but she was smiling. Queso has that effect on people.

Everything was looking great with her and the nurse was able to get a good reading on the fetal monitor. She swabbed me for amniotic fluid and for a bacterial infection and did a cervical check (which didn’t hurt as much as I remembered) and luckily, both came back negative. I was SO relieved they came back negative.

My blood pressure was elevated, not as high as it could be, but they checked it three times before it went down to 146/82 and I was cleared to go home by the on-call OB. I was looking back on my 23-week post with Olivia and unfortunately, that’s when my blood pressure started becoming elevated with her. Let’s hope this was due to nerves from being in the hospital.

What’s going on with Queso

According to my app, Queso is almost a foot long and a little over a pound. She’s listening to our voices and hearing other outside noises (so naturally I’ve been watching Bohemian Rhapsody on repeat). Her little face is now fully formed and she is working on filling herself out into a smooshy chunky baby.

I’ve been noticing more lately her having sleep/wake patterns, and her little rolls and kicks are getting stronger. In fact, there was one time while Chris and I were out on a date where I distinctly felt a foot kick out low in my uterus, enough to make me jump. And then there was the evening I was stretching on the floor with Chris, and she squirmed violently because I was obviously squishing her and eeeks! Mah baby. Things are pretty awesome right now.

What’s going on with me

Heartburn…what can I say? Still sucks. Restless legs and constipation continue to not be an issue as long as I’m on the magnesium. My low back’s been aching a little more lately and I’m out of breath more often. Queso thinks it’s great fun to trounce on my bladder whenever she can, so the frequent peeing is starting and I’m up sometimes twice in the night. Another joy is stomping on my cervix. I can’t wait to meet her. She’s just like her sister was when she was on the inside. I’ve had very minimal swelling in my feet, but at the end of the day they’re aching horribly and I’ve been making Chris give me foot rubs almost every night. The last few weeks I’ve been craving corn dogs. Only the State Fair brand. Gimme them all. I can’t enough. Why can’t I crave something like spaghetti squash or kale?

I saw my chiropractor and told her about the sciatic episode from last week. She told me I was WAY off in my hips and pelvis. And my right leg was short 3/4 of an inch compared to my left. Basically, I was a hot mess. This probably explains the instability I’ve been feeling lately. She did a ton of adjustments and then I turned over onto my back and she adjusted my pubic bone because that was a fucking disaster too. I was sent home to ice my lower back a few times a day until Friday when she wants to see me again. Weirdly, after that adjustment, I started feeling Queso move a ton more than I was in the previous few days which apparently is a thing because it can fix intrauterine constraint. The sciatica came back today while we were out on a walk, but not as bad as it was earlier this week. My SIL sent me a link to a support belt, and it may be time to look into that. Oy.

Nursery Progress

We’ve been making some slow progress on the nursery. More or less. Chris and I keep going back and forth on whether or not we want to paint the walls. Right now it’s two-toned with pale green on top and a slightly darker shade on the bottom, left from the prior owners. We didn’t paint Olivia’s nursery because it was yellow and worked and it ended up getting painted a few years later when she got her bed. Queso’s room has a lot of nail holes since it was being used as a guest room for a long time, so there’s that, but…I’m lazy and would rather just not paint it and do it in a few years when she changes her room around. In the end, we decided to only repaint the top of the wall in a similar light green it is now. I grabbed some samples to choose from.

We’ve slowly been clearing out the room and closet, but it feels daunting. Still, I want to get a jump on all this before I get really huge and it’s a lot harder. Chris bought some stain for the crib since he needs to sand down the places where Olivia chewed her little heart out and restain the areas before he can put it together. The resale value is fucked, but hopefully, we can make it look a little more normal for this next baby.

1st-trimester bump photos

2nd-trimester bump photos