Only 2 words at 20 months- should I worry?

[Ladamesansmerci]

Hi all, my DD is 20 months old.

Other than her speech, she appears to be developing normally. She walked at 14 months, is climbing, just learning to jump, etc. She can stack a lot of blocks, do puzzles, and has started pretend playing now (feeding/rocking her doll, giving me an injection with the doctors set, etc). She's my first baby so I have nothing to go on, but she seems to be doing what online milestone things suggest.

Speech wise, we are raising her bilingual with German, doing one parent one language. She seems to understand both languages. She can follow instructions well (e.g. bring me some socks, put the bag under the pram, etc) and does so in both languages. She will point to the right picture in books when asked, can point to body parts, etc.

My main worry is she only has two words (Hiya and more). She gestures a lot through pointing and combines it with yelling to get what she wants, lol. She isn't quiet and babbles a lot, she just has a very low level of expressive speech.

I do have OCD and tend to obsess about her development as part of my OCD, and I had severe polyhydramnios when pregnant, which is associated with genetic disorders in the research literature, and that's always in the back of my mind. The health visitor keeps saying they don't worry until 2, but I can't help it.

Is this normal? Is it because she's bilingual? I don't think social media helps where everyone talks about their kid using two words sentences at this age 😭

Her receptive language sounds like a good sign but as it's very much been proven a myth that two languages leads to much delay I would push for a hearing test referral and confirm the health visitor isn't wrong that it definitely has to be 2 to get referred for speech and language (mine was adamant they couldn't until 2 but I found info to the contrary which push them to do it sooner).
In the meantime this charity is excellent for speech and language advice
https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/

It is unlikely to be because you're raising her bilingual, as @1995SENNDMUM said. I would say it's below the average, but in the usual range – the range of 'typical speech development' is absolutely huge at this age.

If her understanding is good and she's communicating with gestures, pointing, facial expression, etc., it's very likely just her developmental path. That said, if it were me, I'd be having her hearing checked and having a chat with the charity mentioned above so that you can support her early if it turns out something is going on.