20 weeks

Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, he's measured from head to toe.)

He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).

20 weeks! Halfway-ish!

My OB contacted me on Monday and it turns out that the ultrasound last week showed that I have placenta previa. This is where, in my case anyway, the placenta is completely covering the cervix. So, I am to take it easy, no vacuuming or other chores, no picking up anything beyond the weight of a gallon of milk, etc. Most likely things will be fine, the placenta will move up and there will be no threat of preterm labor or anything else. There's a good chance (90%!) that it will move up and away from my cervix, hence my being positive about this. I've had no contractions or bleeding, I feel good, so I'm feeling okay about this. It stinks to be having to take it easy, but alas, I'm committed to of course making sure this pregnancy is as healthy as possible for Sprout!

Here's a link about placenta previa for anyone that is interested and hadn't heard of it beforehand. Placenta previa: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

Otherwise I am feeling good, just laying around and ordering my slaves, err kids.. kidding, kidding.. to help out more, which they don't mind. Actually, I'd say my husband is the one doing more, the kids are just doing their normal "chores".

I have taken to learning to knit this week. I was hesitant, as I typically learn such things better from someone here to show me, but I followed some YouTube videos and am doing pretty well, I think. I'm just playing around and learning various things now, like correcting little mistakes. I'd like to make something eventually, but I'm not going to start any projects quite yet. But it's a good little task to do while laying around.

And I took a belly picture today. Sprout is definitely high up. I typically carry kind of high, but this pregnancy, my belly seems much higher than usual. Hubby says I am snoring at night, which is what I tend to do later in pregnancy, so I'd say baby is pushing things up around my lungs already. I'm feeling congested at night, but sleeping more upright isn't a possibility, so I figure this is paybacks for my husband's snoring for the past ten years, right? Ha.