20 Week Ultrasound

The big news this week is I hit the 20 pound weight gain goal. It was a lot harder than I would have expected. I can remember being conscious of my weight (and ability to gain easily) as early as elementary school, so it was quite a surprise to me that I’ve had a really hard time gaining. I feel like I’m eating all the time and had to add ensure high protein/high calorie drinks to my daily diet to try to fatten up quickly. Being told to gain weight sounded like a lot more fun in theory than it was in actuality. I always hear of people who are really hungry throughout their pregnancy and just can’t get enough to eat. I tried to just eat when I was hungry for a 2 week period and I didn’t gain anything, so now I’ve had to really force myself to eat whether I want to or not in order to give the girls what they need.

So anyhow, hitting the 20 pound milestone was definitely a victory for me. Now the doctor says I can “slow it down” to 1.5 pounds per week since I’ve caught up to where I needed to be.

The girls have continued to grow at a normal rate and have been sharing like we’d want them to, so we’re in good shape for now. Baby B flipped and is now head down on my right side with her feet up in my ribs. Her kicking is quite painful, but it’s a reminder that she’s doing well. Baby A is somewhat head down as well, but is stretched horizontally across the lower part of my stomach with her head on the right side too. At one point the girls looked like they were boxing each other which explains some of the discomfort I’ve had lately.

Now that baby B has moved, we were finally able to get a good look at her. The first one is baby B and the second is baby A's face.

My mobility has really gone downhill fast over the past few weeks. My back (especially on my right side where I’m carrying ¾ of the weight) isn’t handling the additional weight very well. It’s probably not good for me, but I’ve been trying to push through my to-do list while I still can. I got all the painting (it’s not wall paint – so it doesn’t count as breaking the doctor’s orders…) done in the nursery, which is a relief.

Luke was taking pictures of me as I worked on it last week. Fortunately the tree I painted is well above belly height – otherwise I think I might have kept dragging my stomach across wet paint.

 

Here are the final products. The first picture is the wall that I painted and the second one is the vinyl tree/animals that I ordered off of Etsy. I plan to put the rocker below the tree I painted once it is delivered.

This picture was taken today. It’s funny how my concept of being large has changed over the course of the pregnancy. I felt huge early on, but now when I look back at those pictures I realize that was nothing. I’m sure I’ll feel similarly about my 20wk size by the time I hit my 3^rd trimester.