17 Weeks

Fall, 2013

So here we are, 17 weeks all over again.

And life is good. I have definitely been slack on the taking photos front (though I edited this post to add one from the weekend), but I am generally feeling well.

I was pretty worn out this summer, especially around 9 weeks or so, though unlike with my last pregnancy, it was sometimes hard to decipher whether I was tired from baby-chasing, working full time, constant travel, or just the usual first trimester exhaustion.

I haven't been obsessively reading about which fruit or vegetable I am carrying this week or feeling as hyper-aware of every little sensation this time around. Occasionally, when I get really hungry, I wonder why that is for a few seconds, and then remember I'm pregnant. I've gotten a few nasty headaches, and generally felt vague and ineffectual a lot of time time. I'm not sure if that's pregnancy related or if that's just life.

That said, compared to some of my friends who've had very challenging first trimesters, I'm really lucky. When I felt queasy, it was just sort of general "I'd like some toast" malaise, not full on waves of intense nausea. And I'd say I feel pretty much as I did the last go around at about this time. The same crazy, vivid dreams, the same occasional discomfort if I'm sitting in the same position for too long.

Whereas the last go round, I felt like time was at a standstill when I was pregnant, this time it's going really quickly.

We had our first anatomy scan on Monday, which was exciting. I always have nerves when I go to our imaging center, in part because every scan during my last pregnancy was kind of a hold-your-breath-for-bad-news experience. Even though Axel's cyst and surgery is now behind us, during my pregnancy it meant there were a lot of unknowns and worries, even those we never articulated.

So this scan? Well, the baby is perfect. On target for growth, no cysts, everything is looking great. The only "but" (and why is there always a "but"?) is that I have a single umbilical artery. The perinatologist said essentially that it's one of those things that most often means nothing more than extra monitoring for growth, and that it's quite common. Compared to Axel's eventual diagnosis, he said, it's like "nit picking" a perfectly healthy pregnancy.

As reassuring as that was, I still have to go in for monthly ultrasounds and, beginning at 36 weeks, for twice-weekly biophysical profiles (non-stress tests for the baby.) Though the latter is just because I am "elderly." And I felt a certain amount of "why is there always something to worry about?" but then again, that's just life with children, no?