20 weeks and feeling it

Gestation: 20 weeks
Weight: 187.5
Appearance: Belly is big. Stretch marks on boobs only.
Symptoms: Nausea pretty much has been gone since 16 weeks but I still get occasional feelings of nausea that I can usually ignore. The discomfort has definitely began. The stomach muscles have just stretched to a point of discomfort and my stomach feels hard. It tenses up and contracts and my bladder is pinched to the size of a penny, giving me the overwhelming urgency to go pee even when I don't really have to. I try to sit more but my back hurts. I alternate between trying to stretch out my stomach and trying to stretch out my back.

My stomach just feels hard. It's freaky to feel. Sleeping is tough and some nights my body just hurts more. One night I was on crying out loud whenever I had to shift my weight. Then some days I am perfectly good and my abdomen and back feel more relaxed.
Countdown: 8 weeks until viability. 13 weeks until average birth arrival.

I haven't blogged in a while but I'm keeping my computer at work so I can't blog at home. And we have a shortage of computers at work currently so I just haven't been able to grab time to blog.

Last week, we went for our 19 week ultrasound with the specialist. It was so reassuring to see that Baby A is keeping up with growth although still very behind Baby B. And still no sign of that growth on Baby A's spine that appeared a month ago. Dr. said their levels are a little low but nothing alarming. He spent a lot of time with Baby B's heart and I just knew something was up. He took three times the number of pictures compared to the other babies. At the end, he went over the results. Baby B does seem to have some heart problems. That thick nuchal fold we saw at 12 weeks can indicate chromosomal disorders or heart problems. In this case, it looks like heart problems. Dr. pointed out that one side of the heart didn't seem to be beating as strong as the other side and there was a hole in the heart. A cardiologist called us and we're going in for an echo of all their hearts this upcoming week. But Dr. was encouraged that Baby B is growing strong, she's the biggest still of all the babies and very very active. And so we're so happy that our babies are going strong.

Thanks to Scott's constant joking about looking for hidden boy parts, we received our third set of crotch close-ups which bring the total to nine pictures total. Enough. I believe it. They're all girls.

I'm at work. The doc said I was doing good and my cervix was measuring normal. I can continue to work until my body starts to object and he also told me warning signs that we should look for that might indicate danger: increased vaginal discharge, a mucous plug, rhythmic contractions, bleeding. So I'm on my last week of work but I told them to schedule me in for next week and I'll play it by ear. Today, my body is hurting and I wish I was at home so I could lie down. But summer has arrived, and this past weekend, I was just hot and miserable at home. So, I'm okay with trying to stick it out here at work.

I feel a lot more movement and little jabs. Imagine a thick layer of rubber, like a whoopee cushion pulled tight. And then someone flicks it. That's what it feels like to me. Once I had my hand on my stomach and I was able to seriously feel a kick from the outside. Now when I lie down, I splay my hands over my stomach to try and catch any movement. I really want to get to a point that Scott can feel it so he can be a part of it. I feel a lot more connected to the babies now that I have little random reminders of their existence.

Yesterday, I asked him if he was not as excited to have babies. I told him it was because he didn't touch my belly like he used to. He sheepishly admitted that it felt weird now. It's true. My belly feels completely different. It's hard and the skin is pulled tight...so he made up for it by rubbing my stomach for fifteen minutes...I had to ask him to stop because it was making me nauseous=) He just can't win.

We are completely unprepared. I had illusions that we would have our house cleared out and unnecessary furniture rid of. Um, nothing has changed. Hopefully, when I stop working then we'll see some progress at home.