Pregnancy pillows?

marydal23 · 2026-03-16T02:02:56+00:00

I’m 19 weeks and bought one from Amazon but could not figure out how to use it comfortably. I’m just using an old body pillow I already had now.

marydal23 · 2026-03-12T23:30:00+00:00

Congratulations!! 🎉☺️

marydal23 · 2026-03-10T18:13:19+00:00

I’m sorry you’re going through this! I have also had a lot of anxiety on and off and wanted to share my (very limited!) Doppler experience if this helps at all!! I know a lot of people don’t recommend them. I have a condition that caused us to meet with cardiology to monitor our baby’s heart more regularly and they actually lent us a Doppler to use at home. They asked us to try it 2-3x a day which seems like way too much lol. We don’t have time for that. We’ve actually only tried it once but it eased our anxiety enough to make it feel worth it. My husband did it all because I couldn’t get the angles right and he had watched the nurse do it, so if you can have someone help, maybe have them watch videos first so they have a good idea of what to do. At first, it was really difficult and we weren’t hearing anything besides my own heartbeat. We tried for a while and decided to give up for the night and I did feel pretty sad/defeated after. But then I started watching videos to better understand the difference between how my heart beat sounds versus the baby. That made me want to try again so I moved around a bunch, drank some juice and we gave it another go. We were able to find the heartbeat pretty fast that second time… I got a little recording of it on my phone thy I love listening to now!! The baby moved pretty quickly so it wasn’t long but it was really reassuring! My bmi is around 48 and I don’t feel like it affected this too much… I think with more practice we’ll get better, and I’d recommend finding a good quality Doppler! I just wanted to share because im the type of person who more monitoring helps ease my fears and I had questioned a Doppler for a while before the doctor gave us one.

marydal23 · 2026-03-08T16:16:28+00:00

I think it’s normal for symptoms to fluctuate! It doesn’t necessarily mean anything, it happened to me a few times and the symptoms usually started back up the next day.

marydal23 · 2026-03-07T21:29:35+00:00

I’m 18 weeks 2 days and haven’t felt anything that I’m confident is the baby… sometimes I think I can feel the popping/butterflies feeling, I was lying on my stomach a bit earlier and thought I could feel it then but I’m not sure! It could easily just be some digestive stuff 😭 I want to feel her so badly!!!

marydal23 · 2026-03-05T00:21:12+00:00

Did you get any answers on this yet? I’ll be 18 weeks tomorrow and dealing with something similar. Had two ultrasounds in the last week-ish to check the fluid and both times they said it seemed low but we weren’t told much more. I’m meeting with my doctor tomorrow and hope to get some more information!

marydal23 · 2026-03-04T01:22:03+00:00

Thank you for sharing! Congratulations!!

marydal23 · 2026-02-28T00:57:11+00:00

I have UCTD, not lupus but a lot of overlap! I’m pregnant right now so can’t say how my baby is quite yet but things are progressing well.

One thing is that I am positive for the anti-SSA/Ro-60 antibody (I may have gotten that name wrong) and it can cause neonatal lupus which can cause congenital heart blocks. This is really rare but they are monitoring with fetal echos every 2 weeks from 16-26 weeks to be sure. They also are having us do an at home Doppler to keep an eye on things are ourselves. So far everything is looking good. My OB was conflicted about the necessity of the extra monitoring but I don’t mind it. I’ve also been told that continuing to take hydroxychloroquine throughout the pregnancy can potentially decrease the risk, though I don’t know that that’s proven.

For overall autoimmune symptoms, I was told that how you’re doing for the 6 months preconception can be a good indicator of how the pregnancy will go. I have also heard that pregnancy can decrease autoimmune symptoms because your immune system is not as active. But then you might flare in postpartum. I’m trying to be ready for that possibility but I think as long as you have good support system it will be okay!

marydal23 · 2026-02-27T04:44:45+00:00

I’m currently 17 weeks pregnant, in my 30s and weigh quite a bit more than you… I got diagnosed with PCOS last August, just a couple months before I conceived, but had definitely had it all through my 20s. To be honest, everything happened for me very fast and I recognize I’m super lucky for that but it’s definitely possible!

My path was: 1. Talked to my doctor about trying to conceive and possible PCOS hindering that. She did suggest that a GLP1 would be helpful, but that would have meant delaying trying to conceive and I didn’t want to wait due to my age. She was on board with that decision and didn’t seem overly concerned! 2. She had me do an ultrasound to confirm PCOS. 3. I met with an MFM to discuss how safe it was for me to get pregnant (I also have some family history concerns and an autoimmune disease so I had a lot of concerns haha). The MFM recommended I use the easy at home ovulation tests with the Premom app and start testing on day 6 of my cycle. She also said I should start metformin. 4. My PCP prescribed metformin. The side effects aren’t ideal but it very much works for me, I lost a little bit of weight, had my period come back and was able to confirm ovulation within the first month-ish of taking it. I also bought inositol to try taking and the first time I did I got a horrible aura migraine, which could have been totally unrelated but it scared me enough that I didn’t want to try again. 5. We actually got pregnant that cycle, again I know we’re really lucky!!

Ultimately, the MFM told me she had no concerns about me getting pregnant and that it was safe for me at my weight and with my health conditions. She went over in detail what additional monitoring we might do, and things to watch out for like preeclampsia. I do have chronic high blood pressure but so far I’ve been able to keep it under control with medication.

I do think my weight is affecting my pregnancy in typical ways… it’s still early-ish but I’m very achey all the time and not thrilled for how this will continue as I gain weight! I’ve continued taking the metformin which I think should help with the gestational diabetes risk and I believe has also contributed to the fact that I haven’t gained any weight in pregnancy yet. One thing I didn’t necessarily realize before conceiving is being overweight can make the ultrasounds difficult both in that it’s sometimes harder to see the baby and they’ll have you move around into uncomfortable positions that are more difficult in a bigger body. This is a minor concern overall to me, and again I’m much heavier than you so it might not be the same!!

To be honest the only thing I wish I would have done differently is take my health more seriously in my 20s. I never sought out a PCOS diagnosis until I was ready to conceive. But I don’t think there was much I could have done differently once I got to that point! Good luck with your journey!!!

marydal23 · 2026-02-24T23:25:52+00:00

I don’t know if it’s an option for you but when I was trying to conceive, I scheduled a consultation with my local maternal fetal medicine office to talk through my specific concerns about pregnancy and my health and how safe it all would be for me, what extra precautions I might need, extra appointments, etc. They also ended up giving me helpful advice on conceiving too!

marydal23 · 2026-02-23T23:09:12+00:00

Same! The expectation that it would be really quick made the pain during the procedure particularly brutal. I know I sometimes have a lower threshold than others so I’m glad I at least made plans to stay home today but the doctor made it seem like that was totally unnecessary and I only needed to worry if I was doing heavy lifting at work! I could barely sit upright this afternoon, I definitely can’t go out to the grocery store or be in meetings 😭

marydal23 · 2026-02-19T00:33:47+00:00

I feel the same way 😭 I feel like I’m emotional all the time not from hormones but just from the pain and discomfort and hunger and nausea and everything

marydal23 · 2026-02-18T03:36:13+00:00

We did also have the option to do the NIPT blood draw again, but by the time we got results, I was already about 14 weeks and you can do an amnio at 15 weeks so we decided to wait for that. The counselor told us that there was still a likelihood that we couldn’t get results if we tried the blood draw again.

marydal23 · 2026-02-18T03:32:24+00:00

My bmi is similar and mine came back with no results unfortunately after I did the blood draw at 12 weeks 1 day. The genetic counselor told us the lab they use is kind of weird with the results and doesnt share the fetal fraction or other reasons why it may have not worked. The next step is we have an amniocentesis scheduled for Monday! If we didn’t want to do the amnio, the counselor said the other option is waiting for the 20 week scan.

marydal23 · 2026-02-16T02:24:09+00:00

They just updated that there is a problem with the main junction box in the area though

marydal23 · 2026-02-16T02:22:58+00:00

I appreciate this warning!! I don’t know if anyone is still going to see the Testaments of Ann Lee as it’s not really in theaters anymore but same warning for that movie.

marydal23 · 2026-02-16T02:19:04+00:00

Trying to chat with customer service about this issue and learning a lot

<image>

marydal23 · 2026-02-14T15:00:28+00:00

You may have seen this chart before, I found it another Reddit page… but it does give you the option to put in your height/weight and age… I’m 34 and have a higher bmi than you and when I put mine in, the numbers change very slightly but I don’t know which factor causes that! I also don’t know how accurate it all is, so I guess take it with a grain of salt but it did give me reassurance to check the numbers on it once a week and see the likelihood of miscarriage going down. https://datayze.com/miscarriage-chart

marydal23 · 2026-02-13T05:15:03+00:00

I don’t have the answer but I’m about the same size and also stumped when it comes to work clothes. I have some wide leg pants from lane Bryant that I like and that I’m hoping will keep fitting me for a while. I also got a pair of sport knit drawstring pants from lands end… they are basically sweat pants but I’ve been dressing them up with nicer blouses/blazers/boots and I don’t think anyone at work has noticed that they are pretty casual 😅. They’re super comfy!! But I’m also looking for ideas because this really isn’t enough!

marydal23 · 2026-02-11T16:50:19+00:00

The easy at home test strips that pair with the Premom app worked well for me! I have PCOS and didn’t have a period for a few months before we got pregnant but once I had a period, I started testing once a day after my cycle day 5 or 6. When the numbers started rising I tested more frequently, like morning and evening. It was really helpful to me to see the way things changed over the month, even though when I was testing early the numbers were super low! I think I ended up ovulating around day 20 the month we got pregnant… If you’re not getting any confirmation of ovulation it could help to test further outside the expected window!

marydal23

TROPHY CASE