....dhupp dhupp dhupp dhupp dhupp....

Week 17+:
I called my Family practioner(I had the option of choosing a Nurse Midwife over a MD) regarding the uneasiness I had been experiencing since a couple of days...

I was at a mall & suddenly there was an(inverted) 'T' shaped pain in my lower belly, starting straight down my navel to the where my belly ended. I applied some pressure & stood for a minute or two to ease the pain. As I started walking , it was back. I felt like my body was sending me signals to stop right there & drive back home. & thats what I exactly did...

UPDATED:A couple of days later, at night, my tummy suddenly turned into this hard heavy ball...for almost 4-6 hrs. I thought gases, but I wasnt gaseous... Oouch....I just read about Braxton Hicks contractions...I hope not, coz per the article, these come or are more noticable after week 20.... Its time I investigate more...

Also, I noticed my navel had opened up...its stretched out...all that stretching doesn feel good... it looks like a clean tunnel...:)

So I called the Doc, just to be sure that everything was OK with me & Tweetu before I board the plane to our 'final-frontier' vacation...

Doc asked me to visit her@ the clinic; said she would measure me(something that nobody had done so far, during all my pre-natal visits; not for me, not for Tweetu although they should have...donno why...) & check Tweetu too.

The discomfort that I am experiencing is called the 'round ligament' pain, a normal symptom of the advancing pregnancy. The Uterus starts to grow at rapid rate & puts pressure on the round (belly)ligaments. The inverted 'T' pain is a common one....some may get it on one side or the other or sometimes very close to the chest cavity. It can range from mild to severe...Tylenol comes handy....

Doc had a tape & she measured my fundal height (the distance from your pubic bone to the top of your uterus; to assess your baby's size, growth rate, and position. As a rule of thumb, your fundal height (in centimeters) should roughly equal the number of weeks you're pregnant. For example, at 20 weeks, your fundal height should be about 18 to 22 centimeters. )....I am right on, 17"@17 weeks! Phew...!

Then came in the Doppler...
My God! Tweetu was being very naughty!
As soon as the probe was placed on my belly, Tweetu did an 'escaping' act if you will! We heard a strong heartbeat, maybe just for a fraction of a second when Tweetu started playing hide-n-seek with us!
The Doc took around 8-9 minutes to locate Tweetu...& all the while, we heard my heartbeats, gastric noises, Tweetu's kicks, the whole enchilada but not the heartbeats...
& then slowly & skilfully, the probe was over Tweetu...dhupp dhupp dhupp dhupp...almost like a fast paced steam engine...150/min...
I was so happy & so was the Doc...
Tweetu was hiding somewhere between the lower right side of my belly, way down, from where we had caught 'him' initially!
Yes, the Doc said, 'boys' had always given her tough time!
Hmm...'him'? Maybe....! We just cant be sure as yet, can we?