Anyone awake for a handhold? Snotty discharge at 23wks

[PointyMcguire]

So yesterday morning I sneezed violently and a short while later passed a fingernail sized blob of snotty/gelatinous discharge. There’s been no blood or cramping, but my bump seems odd to me (doesn’t protrude quite as prominently from my ribs, but that might be reduced bloating perhaps). I’ve had usual movements from baby so am hopeful they’re fine, but I’ve had increased round ligament pains for the last few days, which is normal from everything I’ve read but I’m finding myself in a bit of an anxiety spiral.

I rang the midwife line at around 6.30pm in hope of a bit of reassurance, but despite their promises I’m yet to have a call back, and have just been to the bathroom and found a much smaller blob of the same discharge when I wiped so now I’m terrified I’m losing my mucus plug. My logical brain knows it can regenerate and that will more than likely be what happens but my anxiety is taking over and I can feel myself getting worked up and panicky. We had an early miscarriage in January, so I know I do tend to fear the worst but really thought I’d reached a point where I could enjoy the pregnancy now 😔

Any advice or reassurance would be greatly appreciated.

Discharge by itself, if not bloody or accompanied by pain, is usually nothing. Even if it was your mucus plug it can regenerate itself. At 23 weeks your uterus hasn't even reached your belly button so it would be very normal to not have a bump under your ribs. Baby's movements are the main indicator that they're happy, so if that's normal then excellent

Mine "replenished" often throughout my pregnancy with DS. Every couple of weeks I'd get some discharge in clumps, then it would stop. And so it repeated.

No blood, no pain, no spotting brown/red with it.

I delivered a perfectly healthy 7lb 10oz boy at 40+3 weeks 😊

Hopefully though the midwife will call you back and reassure you or offer a check up.

Thanks @littlemissalwaystired that definitely helps. Since my bump started appearing it’s always been quite pronounced high up, but from what you’re saying that’s most likely bloating rather than baby. I’ve had the usual twinges, but more discomfort than pain. I just feel like everything is amplified when I’m anxious.

Definitely more bloat than baby so please don't worry! Uterus usually reaches your belly button around 24 weeks and then grows roughly a finger width a week. I fully understand how everything seems worse when you're anxious, but from what you've said nothing jumps out as being concerning to me.

Thanks @CaptainBarbosa congrats on your DS! I had similar discharge early on in the pregnancy, presumably when the plug was forming, but recently I’ve just had white discharge in my underwear so the jelly-like blobs took me by surprise. It doesn’t help that whilst seeking reassurance from the internet I stumbled across a comment saying they’d had similar discharge and gave birth 24hrs later, so now I’m stressing that’s what’s going to happen to me.

@littlemissalwaystired you have no idea how reassuring that is to hear. I’ve spent so much time overanalysing every little thing that it’s hard to tell what’s anxiety and what’s actual cause for concern at this point, so having someone else say what I’m saying isn’t concerning means a lot.

I have lost my mucus plug like 4-5 times throughout the pregnancy (currently 40 weeks) & got in a panic the first time it happened but midwife said it can happen and it just keeps reforming (which it definitely has as lost it so many times now!)
& I have had multiple growth scans in that time for different reasons and everything has been perfectly healthy so I wouldn’t worry 😊

I just wanted to quickly return to thank everyone for their kind words last night. I honestly thought I was in for a long, sleepless night of panicking but thanks to everyone I managed to get a few hours rest here and there.

I managed to speak to my midwife this morning who was absolutely lovely about the whole thing and has echoed that this is completely normal, so to try not to worry. She suspects the weird muscle pains in my bump might be a pulled muscle from my violent sneezing 🤦🏽‍♀️😂

With my second baby which was quite soon after my first pregnancy I lost plug from around 17 weeks until I had him at 38 weeks