My Pregnancy: Week 26

Baby's now the size of an English cucumber!

The network of nerves in your baby's ears is better developed and more sensitive than before.  She may now be able to hear both your voice and your partner's as you chat with each other.  She's inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid, which is essential for the development of her lungs.  These so-called breathing movements are also good practice for when she's born and takes that first gulp of air.  And she's continuing to put on baby fat.  She now weighs about a pound and two-thirds and measures 14 inches from head to heel.

I'm afraid there's not much to report on this week other than I have been feeling pretty good.  My energy levels are up and I am loving life!  My face is starting to break out more and more recently.  But if this follows the same pattern it did when I was pregnant with Leila, this is only the beginning!

Museum of Natural Curiosity

Yesterday Jason came home from work early so that we could take Leila to the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point.  They do a special every Tuesday in August that all of their entrance fees are only two bucks (they are usually much, much more).  This was the first time we'd been there since it opened and I was thoroughly impressed.  Leila loved every minute of it.  Hands down, her favorite area was the water room.  It will be nice to go back someday when the crowds aren't so nutso.

Bean Museum (Outing Failure)

Saturday afternoons tend to come around and we sit around a lot like the vultures from Jungle Book (What do you wanna do?  I dunno, what do you wanna do?).  Well, yesterday we decided that we were going to be proactive and come up with a plan to get us out of the house.  We didn't want to spend a lot of money and eventually decided that the newly remodeled Monte L. Bean Life Museum would fit our agenda perfectly.  After all, it is free and Leila likes animals, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, when we got there it was quickly apparent that we weren't the only ones who'd had the idea to come and things were pretty chaotic and loud right when we walked in the doors.  This caused Leila to cover her ears and start to get a little skittish right from the get go.  Unfortunately it didn't get better when we saw the animals.  Turns out she likes live animals but the stuffed ones really messed with her somehow.  This was a new thing since we've taken her to Cabella's and she used to love going to look at the animals there.  But she kept covering her ears and saying "scary" but wouldn't let me comfort her or hold her without melting down.  She just wasn't enjoying herself.

And then we found a small slide, that was packed with at least 10 kids trying to go down at once.  She really wanted to go up the treehouse and down the slide but wasn't forceful enough to make her way through the crowd very often.  And she didn't like that.

Needless to say we all got frustrated really fast and our visit barely last 15 minutes.  So we went to visit Grandma Larsen and eat ice cream sandwiches and homemade tamales instead.  Guess we will try the museum again in a few months and see if she does any better!

My Pregnancy: Week 25

Baby's now the size of a rutabaga!

Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches.  Her weight--a pound and a half--isn't much more than an average rutabaga, but she's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat.  As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn.  She's also growing more hair--and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture.

I had another doctor's appointment yesterday and am happy to report that everything is still looking really good!  My weight gain has (finally?) started to pick up at a quick pace.  In fact, I've gained 10 pounds since my appointment four weeks ago.  Guess I know now why I was feeling so stretched and uncomfortable for a couple weeks!  I've also noticed an uptick in my appetite, which makes sense since the additional weight had to come from somewhere!

I also "got" to bring home the yummy (cough, cough) glucose drink that I get to drink before my next appointment to get my glucose test done.  Fingers will be crossed that I don't develop gestational diabetes with this pregnancy like I did with Leila!

My Pregnancy: Week 24

Baby's now the size of an ear of corn!

Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week.  That puts her at just over a pound.  Since she's almost a foot long, she cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but her body is filling out proportionally and she'll soon start to plump up.  Her brain is also growing quickly now, and her taste buds are continuing to develop.  Her lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help her air sacs inflate once she hits the outside world.  Her skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.

Jason and I had a discussion this week that my nesting impulses don't seem to be as strong with this pregnancy.  By this point with Leila, I was painting nursery signs and sewing bedding like crazy.  Part of the reason I'm not doing that this time around is that we will be using a lot of the same stuff for this baby.  I also think that my nesting urges of taken more towards sewing because I have been addicted to my sewing machine lately!  I'm sure that Jason wishes my motivation for doing housework had increased instead sometimes.

I've had a few more uncomfortable days this week, but nothing like it has been in weeks past.  Maybe my skin finally caught up to this growing baby.  Fingers crossed.  I also haven't had a bad run of heartburn for a while now so I'm also hoping that that is subsiding.  I have noticed that my appetite has been increasing so larger portions and snacking are becoming more mainstay.  Good thing its just about time for this baby to start plumping up!

My Pregnancy: Week 23

Baby's now the size of a large mango!

Baby's little face is fully formed...minus the baby fat, of course.  The next task at hand for baby: sprouting two teeny-tiny nipples!  Swollen from head to toe?  Increased blood flow, by now an old friend, is to blame. Consider a trip to the shoe store because loosening ligaments will cause your feet to expand even more in the weeks to come.

Turn on the radio and sway to the music.  With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance.  And...you may be able see her squirm underneath your clothes.  Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world.  Loud noises that become familiar now--such as your dag barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner--probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

These weeks really are just flying by!  In just four months I will have a little baby around the house again!  I don't think that Leila fully grasps that there's a baby inside me, since sometimes when we ask her where baby sister is she'll point to her own stomach, but she is still really sweet about giving my stomach kisses every night before she goes to bed.  We have also been having her try out our name possibilities and she says them all really cute.  Right now it is looking like Ellie is our top first name contender.

I have been feeling more pregnancy-uncomfortable this week.  More so than I ever remember being with Leila, at least this early on.  My skin is so tight most of the time and there are already times when however she is positioned makes it difficult to take a deep breath.  Thankfully the discomfort isn't constant.  It's all worth it in the end, right?

July Randomness

July 11-I took Leila to the car wash and she decided that it was "too loud" for her so she sat with her ears covered the whole time.  She certainly loved playing in the play car wash afterwards though!

After the car wash, Ashley texted to see if Leila and I wanted to meet up with her for lunch at Chick-fil-A.  It was Cow Appreciation Day so if we dressed up like cows, we got a free meal.  Since we were out and about, Ashley was nice enough to provide us all with some cow spots.  Leila was a little confused by all of the "cows" around us and kept mooing.  She made a pretty cute cow herself!

July 21-This little busy body is ALWAYS exploring everything around her.  Even things that aren't new or different, like her toy dresser.  She was playing back in her room when I suddenly hear a distressed "Mama!"  I go back there to find her like this, sitting in second drawer with the top drawer pulled out.  She simply said, "I stuck."  No clue how she managed to get in there in the first place, let alone how she could have gotten out on her own.  Such a cute goober!

My Pregnancy: Week 22

Baby's now the size of a papaya!

Baby's settling into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12 to 14 hours a day.  It shouldn't be hard to figure out when--just pay attention to those kicks as they start and stop.  Real estate within your belly is getting tight, with growing baby leaving little room for your lungs to...well...breathe.  Expect the huffing and puffing to start soon.  There's not much room for your belly button either--it'll pop out any day now.

Since I was late writing last week, there's not much new to report on this week.  I've mostly just been recovering from our camping excursion.  Baby has stretched out a few more times this week, but it hasn't been nearly as uncomfortable as last week.  Thank goodness!