20 Weeks. Round 3

How far along? 20 weeks + 1 day. (Go here to check out my 20 week survey with Julian.)

Next OB appointment?  Monday. I have an appointment with a perinatologist (aka the high risk OB).  So, why am I see a high risk OB? I had my 20 week ultrasound yesterday morning - this is my first pregnancy in Macon so things are a little different than when I was in Atlanta. The 20 week ultrasound in Atlanta was done AT the perinatologist's office and you met with the doctor that day to read your scans.  But here, the 20 week ultrasound was done by a tech in my OB's office. She said the OB would read the scans and contact me should anything need to be discussed.  She said the baby weighs 15 ounces and showed us pictures of the cutie, avoiding the nether regions as we didn't want to learn the sex.  So I thought all was fine and posted this picture on Facebook with the caption below:

20 week ultrasound done!
So does this look like a BOY or GIRL? Guess we'll find out in January!

What happened next was less than ideal.  Karma for posting the picture perhaps? Not thinking the midwife was going to tell us anything about the ultrasound, the husband left to go back to work (at my insistence - he had a call and I didn't see any reason for him to need to stay and go through a routine monthly appointment). My practice has 2 OBs and 2 midwives, so my 20 week appointment yesterday was with one of the midwives who I hadn't met before.  We chatted for 5-10 minutes or so and then just as we were talking about using a doula this time, she did a 180 and said we needed to talk about my ultrasound.  It felt like it came out of left field, I suppose because I thought everything was fine and I didn't think we'd be going over the ultrasound in that appointment.  Naive, perhaps.

Apparently this little love has multiple cysts in/on its left kidney. The good news is that the right kidney looks perfectly clear and the baby's bladder was full of urine, which means that at least the right kidney is working properly.  She said they were scheduling me to see the high risk OB who would perform their own ultrasound and give us more information about what this means. She said she hoped they'd be able to get me in that day. She advise me to stay off google and WebMD as those "worst case scenarios" will just scare me.  I didn't really know what questions to ask or what to say. I think I was shocked, and still am.

I don't know what this means for the baby. I'm obviously hoping for the best but bracing for more bad news. We've decided that at the high risk appointment next week we're going to find out the sex of the baby. I want to go ahead and name him/her and be able to share the baby's name so people can pray for it by name.  The husband and I sat down last night and narrowed down our lists of names.  We both feel like this baby is a girl, so obviously we had an easier time coming up with boy names.  I love our two boys names and adore the 8 girl names we can't yet narrow down.  So much for team green....

Total weight gain/loss? Total of 13 pounds since the start.  Feel like I'm becoming a fat cow.

Maternity clothes?  Oh yes.

Stretch marks? Nothing new this pregnancy.

Sleep? Bad. 

Best moment last week? I sadly can't come up with one.  Can you tell my current state of mind....

Movement? Yes, although this baby is not as active as the boys, which of course I've now convinced myself is another sign that something is wrong.  This appointment needs to happen like now.

Food cravings? Sourdough bread. Preferably topped with pimento cheese, avocado and an egg over easy.

Food aversions? Food generally doesn't sound appetizing lately.

Gender? I feel like baby's a girl.

Labor signs? Nope.

Belly button in/out? In.

What I miss: Not knowing the baby has cysts on it's kidney.

What I am looking forward to: My perinatologist appointment next week, obvi.

Milestones: I'm halfway done with this pregnancy.