Bumpdate - 17 weeks

I would like to tell you that this 2nd trimester is so easy, but this week has been rough for me as the incident two nights ago was not the only traumatic incident I've had this week.

Earlier in the week I had some sort of back spasm?/sciatic nerve issue?  In all honesty we (meaning my midwives and myself) have no idea what happened but it went something like this.  I got up, felt fine but then half an hour into my day I started having these waves of shooting pain in the lower left side of my back.  It was the waves that made me nervous, reminded me of the waves of contractions in my miscarriage (all panic attacks can be traced back to the miscarriage it seems!).  And as I sat through waves and waves with my hand on my uterus to determine if it was just my back or my back AND uterus I finally decided it was back exclusive.  Since my uterus was staying out of it my midwife said she wasn't worried, to rest and call a chiropractor if it didn't go away in a day or so because sciatic nerve pain can be a real problem with pregnant women and she suspected this may be the case.  Luckily after a day laying on a heating pad on the couch, where the waves would return every time I got up to use the toilet, it all went away.  I've had nothing, not even a tiny bit of pain in that same spot since.

Nevertheless it was another unsettling day though nowhere near as unsettling as 2 nights ago.  But you better believe there was cervix checking going on then too!  My cervix and I are getting to be such close friends lately.

So, bumpdate...

How far along: 17 weeks

Weight Gain: +2 this week!  I am up 7 lbs.  After the bump disappeared for a bit at 16 weeks it's made it's comeback, it is now around ALL day not just at night.

Maternity Clothes:  No.  Me and maternity clothes are not friends...except my leggings and my newest addition TIGHTS.  Love maternity leggings and tights.

What's up with my body: The headaches are back.  Most days at one point or another I have a headache.  They are rarely bad enough to need a Tylenol but it's nice to know I can take it as a last resort if it gets bad.  I'm also having a lot of what I assume is gas pains lately, my uterus feels like it's pressing on EVERYTHING in there, so peeing and gas are at an ALL TIME HIGH.  Please PLEASE uterus lift UP already!

Movement:  Sadly, no.

Gender:  Back to girl.  It's the bump, when the bump is out it's just so high I can't help but think girl!  I promise I'm not purposely going back and forth every week, it's just turning out that way that I'm literally going from one to the other from one week to the next.

What I'm looking forward to: Anatomy Scan in 1 week!  I'm just so excited that we COULD find out the sex even though we're not going to.  It's a milestone in pregnancy, making it far enough to find out the sex!

Bumpdate:  I'm in NYC, this piccie will have to suffice.

Look, I'm wearing jeans...just for you guys ;-)

And a quick note about flying while pregnant.  I've decided my gobs of CM were travel related, here's why:

I have 4 examples of traveling getting things "moving" down there.  Pressure changes?

First example, last September, the baby had died 3.5 weeks ago when we flew to NYC, so the flight obviously did not CAUSE the miscarriage but when we landed I started spotting.  The flight travel seems to have moved things along and helped the bleeding to start.

Second example, my miscarriage bleeding was nothing more than very light bleeding when we left NYC, tiny clots and very infrequent.  As soon as we touched down in SF I passed my first HUGE clot (sorry gross!) in the SFO airport.

Third example, 4 weeks after my miscarriage we flew to London.  Again as soon as we touched down I started my first period post miscarriage in the Heathrow airport.  But I spotted for 3 weeks after this and my acupuncturist things my period wasn't QUITE ready to start but the flying started it anyway.

Fourth example, moments after landing here in NYC on Tuesday, gobs of thick CM.  That have now completely disappeared.

I have flown TONS over the last 3 or 4 years and I have never noticed travel affected my menstrual cycle in any way before this BUT I was on the pill forever and then after that my menstrual cycles were completely wonky anyway and then just stopped.  Oh how I wish the magic of flight travel would have started my periods back then!  I flew often in those 90 and 100 day cycles with nothing!  So, for me this is exclusively a pregnant or recently not pregnant phenomenon.

MY TIP, if you're pregnant and flying don't be surprised if your CM changes dramatically from the travel!