Second time around and halfway through

Today I'm 20 weeks along with baby girl.  It's so exciting to know that she's now halfway here!  I feel her kicking me every day now (usually after meals).  In fact, I am pretty sure she likes chocolate, because it didn't take more than a few minutes after I had a bit of chocolate one afternoon this week for her to become very active!

As I've mentioned before, it's been such a different pregnancy than with Evan.  Perhaps because it's a girl, but also just probably because everyone says each pregnancy is different!  Besides the excessive nausea and tiredness I experienced the entire first trimester and already wrote about, I have had the following other ailments/issues occur that did not happen the first time around:

1) Groin pain (beginning around 12 weeks, and so I'm seeing a physical therapist to try to alleviate it, but so far no such luck)
2) Weaker bladder ('nuf said)
3) Gaining weight much quicker (sadly I've already put on 20 pounds!  I only put on 32 total with Evan! And I migrated into maternity pants around week 12...as opposed to probably around week 16)
4) Some light swelling (I just had to take my rings off today and it was hard to get them off, whereas with Evan I think I took them off around 24-28 weeks in the middle of summer when it was just really hot.  And even the elastic on my socks seems to leave bulging marks, so there may even be some slight swelling in my legs)

And then yesterday I had an amniotic fluid leak scare (don't worry, it wasn't really a leak, but after having had that happen with Evan I wanted to be sure).  At least we got a chance to see baby girl again on the ultrasound machine while they checked my fluid levels!  Sadly, none of the ultrasound photos they printed for us from yesterday are very good, especially not compared to those we got at the 17.5 week ultrasound that gave her gender away.  But, since I haven't posted some of those yet, here are a few images of our sweet little angel.

They even gave us a 3D rendition of one of the images, and yes she seems to be a thumb sucker already!

Speaking of our 17.5 week ultrasound, it was done by a perinatologist this time and was done earlier than the typical 20-week time given my advanced maternal age (just turned 35 in March).  Thus, there is yet another difference between baby #1 and #2.  Anyway, the detailed exam they did pretty much said that baby is looking as healthy as you can tell from an ultrasound, so we were very happy to hear that.  Plus, I might add that I didn't have to go into the ultrasound with my bladder full this time!  I was told this was because I was seeing a maternal fetal medicine doc for the ultrasound as opposed to having it done the typical way in the radiology department at the hospital!  (Thank goodness--note issue #2 above).

As we enter into summer, I'm really glad that I'm feeling better so I can take walks to get exercise and play with Evan outside now that the weather is nicer.  Of course, the summer heat could make me uncomfortable, but I already learned from my first pregnancy that dresses are the best for keeping cool and comfortable so I've got a few already lined up.  I just hope the pounds don't continue to pile on so easy, otherwise I might even need some new maternity clothes!