Pregnancy Update

I kept meaning to update my blog over the last 2 weeks, but somehow, I couldn't find the energy to do so.  Work has been extremely busy and after my husband and I get Ian to bed at night, I end up lounging on the couch in front of the TV (and usually fall asleep).  Unbelievably, I'm almost 23 weeks pregnant and time seems like it's flying!  When I was pregnant with Ian, I was counting every single day of my pregnancy and posting weekly updates on my blog.  It's definitely different the second time around.  We haven't taken a single picture of my pregnant belly, despite the fact that we took a weekly picture for 40 weeks when I was pregnant with Ian.

On the pregnancy front, all was going well until last night, when I had another bout of bright red bleeding when I was getting Ian into his pajamas. When I called my OB, the doctor-on-call wanted me to come into the hospital to get an ultrasound at labor and delivery.  But she made it perfectly clear that there was NOTHING they could do for the baby at this point - they wouldn't even give me a steroid shot to develop the baby's lungs.  The check would really be to make sure that I was doing okay and wasn't hemorrhaging.  Given that I didn't have any pain other than period-like cramps, the blood wasn't pouring out of me, and I could feel Shortie moving and kicking, I opted not to go to the hospital.  Rather, we decided to take a wait-and-see approach.

I think that was the right decision because I didn't bleed any more today - I've only seen some old brown blood come out.  When I talked to the doctor last night, she didn't think it was another subchorionic hematoma (although she would have no way of knowing).  She said that because I have a low lying placenta, as the uterus expands and the placenta moves up, a little piece could break off and cause some bleeding.  Let's hope it was just that.  Either way, I was pretty calm about the whole affair.  It's the 3rd time during this pregnancy that I've seen bright red blood and everything was okay the last 2 times.  In addition, I can feel the baby move, which is extraordinarily reassuring.  I'm just going to keep on crossing my fingers that I won't need to deliver this baby before she is full-term.

*Update*
At 23 weeks, I've gained 17 pounds.  Sadly, that is 5 more pounds than I gained when I was 23 weeks pregnant with Ian.  Crap.  Hopefully, I can take it all off later.