weeks 23-25

week 23

Crazy boy! You are a little wild man...and I LOVE it :).  I'm beginning to wonder if you ever sleep in there.  Maybe you sleep while I am, keep that up!  I am still getting random feelings that you are going to be a big baby, maybe partly because some of your movements seem so BIG sometimes!  The other day at work you were going crazy for 5 straight minutes-moving, swiping, kicking me all on the top right side of my belly.  I love being able to see your movements and see you shake my belly if I lift up my shirt and watch.

I'm down to 3 days/week at the gym (some weeks only 2 days, but I try and do 2 classes one of those days) and still teaching BodyPump.  I'm feeling pretty good in BP, but the cardio classes are starting to become a lot tougher.  I don't do as much of the jumping or high impact and taking low options every once and a while.  It is just starting to feel uncomfortable to do some of those things.  Pushups and anything core-related is pretty much out the window now too. I have been having a member come up on stage and do the core track full-out while I go modified and still tell people what to do :).  Pushups are definitely on my knees now, modified pushups when even those get too hard.  It's crazy to watch yourself simply not be able to do things you could do before!

We had our appointment today and everything checked out great!  I had a feeling I had gained some weight this time for sure...and boy did I! We made up for the last appointment with no weight gain I guess.  I gained 7.5 lbs in 4 weeks...holy cow! I guess that means you are a growing boy in there! Or maybe it means I need to take it easy on the Halloween candy :).  So that puts us at a total weight gain of 10.5 lbs so far.  Blood pressure was great at 120/80, even better than last appointment.  Your heart rate was 160 bpm and Dr. Hughes said you "sure are growing!" when she measured my belly.  Our next appointment will be at 27 weeks and includes the glucose tolerance test (note to self: don't drink my morning OJ that day), Tdap shot (boo!), and more blood work.  Matt has still been coming to every single appointment and I absolutely love it.

Baby is the size of a grapefruit this week and gaining weight every day!  You are about 11 inches long and weigh just over a pound.

week 24

24 weeks...6 months!  What a solid number.  It's so cool to have gotten this far.  And guess what milestone you hit this week? Viability! Now that does NOT mean you are allowed to come out (especially since we will be out of town and away from my NICU for a week).  In the NICU world, there is a huge difference between a 23 and 24 weeker.  Every single day counts.  The longer you cook and the closer you are to term, the better.  Us NICU nurses have quite a warped mind, but it makes me feel so much better to have gotten to 24 weeks!

I feel like I have gotten a lot bigger this week.  Actually I feel like my stomach grows bigger every single day, it's so strange! I absolutely love having this little bump on me reminding me that you are growing away in there.  You can definitely see my been-an-outie-for-awhile belly button through my shirts, I can't imagine it popping out any farther.

My mom and I went to Joann Fabrics and picked out all the fabric for the nursery! We got the fabric for your quilt, crib skirt, and crib rail cover.  It's a mix of grey, turquoise, lime green, linen, and white.  I'm hoping everything will tie together!  The room will be basically neutral (grey, linen, brown) with little pops of the turquoise and lime.

Baby is the size of a cantaloupe weighing in at a little over a pound and 13-21 inches long.  

week 25

This thing is popping out like crazy!  I have definitely felt very "pregnant" this week.  I think that week off for vacation where I mostly just sat on my butt and ate made for a hard come-back this week.  After work this week, I've come home with slightly swollen calves and feet-just a slight indentation from my compression hose.  I had a super busy day with an admission on Wednesday and my feet were throbbing like crazy.  It's getting harder to run around these days!  I'm back to peeing every 5 seconds (I had a good solid couple weeks break from that!) which made for quite the interesting road trip back home, definitely a couple more stops than on the way down.

We had an amazing trip! You dad was as incredible as ever and never once complained about our frequent stops or the need to relax a little more...in fact, he actually complimented me on how well I was doing!  He was a pro with the back rubs and the morning breakfast sandwiches too.  He's the bomb.  You're going to love him :).

The coolest thing when you move now is being able to feel little body parts. I don't know exactly what body part it is, but it feels like a foot or knee (or hand!) pushing out at me sometimes.  I mostly feel you at my belly button or upper right side.  Lately too I have been noticing I can feel you in multiple spots at once. You'll move and I can feel you up top and pushing off my bladder at the same time.  The movements just feel so much bigger!  We are going to get started on clearing out/possibly painting your room this weekend.  But we also are going to register, so I'm not sure what all we will actually get done.  I'm starting to feel the pressure of getting everything done before you come though!  We are looking forward to spending time with family next week at Thanksgiving!

Baby is the size of a cauliflower this week weighing in at 1.5 lbs and about 13.5 inches long.