20w check-up

Today was my 20w check-up and I was sooo glad about being able to go see the doctor, because since yesterday late afternoon I'd been having constant abdominal cramps again and I was freaking out a bit. I did lay down, drink lots of water, use a heat pad etc, but it didn't really help. Seemed that getting up was actually making me feel a bit better (which should not be the case when you're having contractions - so maybe it was intestinal, but my uterus did feel rock solid) and I also felt the baby moving around quite happily, so both reassured me a little bit, but still, I didn't sleep much during the night and was not happy at all when I woke up this morning and it wasn't gone...

Called the OB to see if there might be a possibility that I could come in earlier (my appointment was not until 2pm), but that didn't work. She told me to lie down and take it easy. Hubby was very sweet and decided to work from home this morning, get my results from last Friday at the lab and come with me to the appointment with the OB this afternoon.

So, first thing she did was take a urine sample to check for infections. Result was negative. Friday's results from the lab were negative too. I told her the itch was still not gone (although barely noticable yesterday and today, but I won't say it's gone until it hasn't appeared for at least a week) and she said it probably would stick around for the remainder of the pregnancy, nothing we can do about it. Asked me if I maybe had some constipation - yes, not super bad, but still (I already decided to decrease my extra iron-intake again because of this). OB said that that's probably causing the belly aches and advised to drink a specific water brand that has lots of magnesium in it (but apparently doesn't taste that great) and eat prunes...

Then the usual check-up: gained 1 kg since last month, BP still fine at 112/60, baby's heart rate was 136 bpm. Uterus height OK, but I'm apparently carrying really low. Uterus felt very tense/present/tonic (no kidding!), she asked if that was always the case, I responded that yes, at least yesterday and today. So those are small contractions, but apparently the baby doesn't care ("il s'en fiche", she said) because it was moving around happily. On to the cervix, which was maybe worrying me the most - I already saw myself on bedrest, having to cancel our trip to the US etc... but no, my cervix doesn't care about my contracting uterus either and remains long, strong and closed!

Pfew.. sigh of relief! I'm already feeling better, even though the belly and lower back aches are still there.

Before we left I asked her about our travel plans to the US and she said that was no problem. Also asked about midwife/birthing classes, but she said it was really early for that and we would discuss that next month. But what she did already say was that the hospital would probably not be the best place to go to for the classes, because there would be too many people in the class with a less quick understanding of things, so I would be bored...