24 week update
Grow baby, grow!
22 weeks: 24 weeks:
My belly continues to grow –it’s funny to look back at earlier pictures when I thought my belly was soooooo big- and the baby continues to move and shake around.. it’s amazing. I could lay on the couch and feel her kick for hours, and sometimes there’s a dance party in my belly during the night that wakes me up. I’ll just lay there with a hand on my belly, half asleep and a goobery smile on my face.
The kicks have turned into full-up ka-pows and rolls, almost like she’s doing flips in there. I can’t wait to be able to see it from the outside (and freak Tom out, heh heh). One night he was rubbed my belly and the baby punched him. He said, “Aliennnnnnnn.” It has to be so weird for him, especially since he can’t feel it from the inside like I can 😉
Today marks the 24th week of gluten-free bun baking, and it’s also another “breathe a sigh of relief” kinda day. I’ve been cautiously optimistic throughout the whole pregnancy, but after a long talk with the husband last night, I told him that I won’t really feel *ok* about it until we’re all home safe from the hospital. I’m keeping positive thoughts, but deep down I’m horrified that something dreadful will happen, especially since I’ve never been pregnant before and the heartbreaking stories I’ve heard. I try not to think about it. By 24 weeks, the baby is somewhat viable outside the womb, so if for any reason she were to arrive way too early, while she’d have a host of medical complications, changes are good that she would live. All I can do is pray, enjoy this time, and keep rubbing my belly, reading books to her and singing 🙂
Changes this week:
1) My feet are growing along with my belly. I also have the line down my stomach that I didn’t think I would get. [When I told my mom about it, she was like “Oh yeah, I had that too- it goes away”] I also bit the bullet and bought two nursing bras from Target, since none of my bras fit me and the underwires hurt. Best decision ever. They were each only $15 (! Usually bras are around $50-80) and are the comfiest ever. I also managed to find non-frumpy ones, so I’ll call that a double win 🙂
2) I’ve chilled out on the baby clothes, etc purchases. For now, we’re focusing on one big purchase per month until she’s here. Our travel system arrived and it’s beautiful.. I practiced wheeling it around the house a couple of times.
3) Cravings:
-The usual eggs, smoothies, salads, chocolate and fruit. I’m still trying to boost my iron intake from more leafy greens paired with vitamin C –thanks for the tip!- beets, chia seeds, beans, and chicken. While I don’t really like chicken very much (I’d never order it at a restaurant), baby LOVES it. Every time I have fish or chicken, she kicks like crazy. She does the same for chocolate 😉
-I really, really miss smoked salmon. I think about it and salivate. While we were at Ventana last weekend, Tom had a heaping plate of smoked salmon with cream cheese and a bagel, and it took everything in my power not to snatch it off his plate. I could probably have it if I heated it up, but I want it raw and slimy, haha. For any family members that will be at the hospital on baby’s birthday, post-delivery meal request: Udi’s gluten-free bagel with goat cream cheese, wild caught smoked salmon and capers. I wouldn’t be mad if you brought Shiraz, too 😉
4) We start our birthing class next week. I’m really excited about this one, especially since Tom has been so crazy busy with work, he hasn’t been able to do much baby stuff. One night when I was being a hormonal mess, I cried to him about it. The crying actually hasn’t been too bad lately, though 😉
5) We told the family the name we picked out. We had mixed reviews from our boy name that we chose, but haven’t heard anything but “ohhh, I LOVE that name!!!” with the girl’s name. They actually all refer to the baby by her name now 🙂
6) More crazy a$$ dreams! The most recent one was a few nights ago, I had the baby in my arms but was still very pregnant. She was so cute, with a head full of dark hair, and a very big baby, like 15 lbs. [Maybe it’s because I have it in my head since everyone keeps saying I’m going to have a big baby, since my belly is “so big”] She wasn’t ready to be born yet, and I had no idea how we got her, but they were trying to figure out what to do since everything else was still in my belly (?). The doctors finally decided that they were either going to do surgery or push her back inside of me to stay until she was ready to be born. I was so weirded out because I kept looking at her thinking that there’s no way she’s going back up in there.
We were driving around with the baby and my mom called to see if we could take her to see her friends at work. “I don’t think that’s a good idea mom, because she hasn’t really been born yet.”
So.crazy.
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You’re the cutest pregnant person alive! Congrats, again!
thank you! <3
“It has to be so weird for him, especially since he can’t feel it from the inside like I can “– umm, I would think feeling the kicks from the inside would be even weirder haha!! too weird that you have another PERSON growing inside of you. Pregnancy is so nuts 🙂
As for the dream– maybe you’re feeling that you’ve already been exposing the baby so much on the blog and everything that it feels like you can see her even without her being born? Like your mom asking you to bring her and you saying she hasn’t been born yet– I don’t know 🙂
Haha I love reading about your dreams—I’m not pregnant, but I have weird ass dreams like that ALL THE TIME. It totally makes sense in my head, until I start saying it out loud or writing it down!
You look fantastic!
thank you lovely!
FYI – smoked salmon isn’t technically raw since it is cured. I work at a sushi restaurant, and our rolls with smoked salmon don’t get the raw advisory.
i wonder if that means i can eat it?!
Definitely something worth researching 🙂 I too LOVE me some smoked salmon!
Smoked Seafood -Refrigerated, smoked seafood often labeled as lox, nova style, kippered, or jerky should be avoided because it could be contaminated with Listeria”. You would have to heat treat it to over 160 degrees to kill bacteria.
Love the travel system!
Blah. I shall wait then
I’m not sure if it means anything but my good friend is now 37wks (today!) and she’s been eating it!
That doesn’tvmean it’s okay. Listeria isn’t anything to play around with
You look absolutely gorgeous! 3 months left…. ca-razy! It feels like just yesterday that you spilled the beans on being pregnant in the first place!
Your posts always make me miss being pregnant! You look adorable! My hubby use to say alien too, I would put stuff on belly and watch it move to freak him out! Haha! Never had the dark line, but I heard is disappears after you give birth. It’s a hormone thing. I love my nursing bras from target. I just bought 2 more since my gals are getting a little smaller again! 😉 my feet grew half a size, but are back to normal size now and read your other post about stretch marks, I like to call mine war wounds! Lol! I put all the oil in the world on, didn’t help. Didn’t even have on stretch mark on my belly until the last few weeks of my pregnancy, but thighs and boobs had tons! love these updates!
none on my belly or back yet.. but everywhere else! :/
I’m sure you feel and are getting bigger- but you seriously can’t tell from the pics! You look great 🙂
Love your cute belly! It’s fun for me to watch bloggers like you document their pregnancies & imagine what mine will be like 🙂
Love your updates! My pregnancy is winding down … 4 weeks to go! It seems like yesterday we were at the 24 week mark too. I totally understand your concerns about the pregnancy … I breathed a sigh of relief when I knew my baby was viable outside the womb. Now, I am a week from full term and I have a whole different set of concerns (IE: labor!).
My hubs thinks it’s crazy when the baby goes nuts in my belly – the whole thing moves and contorts haha. He has mentioned an alien baby more than once 😉
4 weeks!!!!!!!! so excited for you!
Oh goodness. My friend and I were just having a conversation today about how we hope to be able to rock a baby bump with grace one day. You look adorable.
So, not sure if this happens to everyone, but my Linea Negra didn’t fade – it FLAKED off. Eww. Also, I thought I had a really bad patch of melasma where my belly crease used to be (you’re not there yet, but your belly will eventually fold on itself – and touch your lap when you sit down). About 6 weeks PP (post partum), I was in the shower washing my belly like I had been every day and the “melasma” started coming off. Nope, it wasn’t skin discoloration – it was dirt and grime. Double eww. Despite what I’ve just said in this comment, I swear I have good hygiene!
LOVE the belly! Wait until 38 weeks..you will look back and think you look like a mini skinny. I laughed so hard looking back at posts and my belly pics. I thought I was “so big” at 16 weeks then at 24 weeks. By 32 weeks I was seriously thinking about getting professional help looking back at how delirious I was 😉
Motherhood maternity sells nursing sports bras! I don’t necessarily workout in them but love mine. Sooooo comfy!!! Cheap too!
Is anyone making you a shower?? You should wait to see what goodies you get and just buy the stuff you wouldn’t get at a shower (breast pump and accessories, bras, etc) people WILL get you the fun stuff…esp clothes knowing it’s a girl!!!
I remember feeling like you with the worrying. I remember getting to 36 weeks and feeling relieved like, okay, this is still too early but I think there are less chance of major issues if baby is born now. Then, Ella came at 41 weeks which is super typical for 1st time pregnancy! Don’t get yourself upset. Like you said, stay positive and try not to think about the worse. HOW many women give birth? Think about it…everyone does it. Yes, there are horror stories, but they are not common. Sometimes things are out of your control but you are doing the BEST you can do for you and baby! Keep it up…mentality is huge too. My usual type A high strung, tight personality went away when I was pregnant. I became so “zen.” My husbands like “you’re the nicest laid back person pregnant, I love it” lol.
Oh…I craved smoked salmon hard core while I was pregnant! Lox and bagel…never eat that stuff either, maybe once a year on Yom Kippur!
Hahaha the dreams are hilarious. I know you hate prenatal yoga but my fav part was getting to class early and exchanging crazy dream stories! I didn’t get ones as funny as some friends did
I can’t believe how far the baby bump has come!
Those dance parties she’s having in there are actually Zumba classes 😉
Now I’m curious about the smoked salmon because I’m pregnant and have been eating it…if it’s true that it’s supposed to be off limits, I’m mentally plugging my ears lalalalalla 🙂
Do you mind sharing the brand of the non-frumpy nursing bras? Is it on their website? Thanks in advance!
Yikes, just saw all the Listeria comments. Won’t be pretending I didn’t read those!
There was recently a smoked salmon recall due to listeria (eek!). It’s the only news about listeria I’ve heard since I was first pregnant almost five years ago:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/08/27/salmon.recall/index.html
I had contraband zinfandel in the hospital after both deliveries, though. By the way, since you love to read you NEED this book: http://www.amazon.com/Medications-Mothers-Milk-Lactational-Pharmacology/dp/098233799X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315950715&sr=1-1
It will give you the real skinny on what happens with various nutrients, supplements, and drugs and how they translate (or don’t) into your breast milk.
Ummm have you seen the missoni for target collection? They have ADORABLE stuff for little girls from bedding to clothes it’s all so cute. I saw it this morning and thought of your little future fashionista 🙂
I love the updates and you look amazing! You are such an inspiration to leading a healthy pregnancy and exercising, eating well, especially to someone who is very newly pregnant like myself. I really look forward to these updates and tips!
Oh Girl that post delivery meal is the ticket! Yum!
All I have to say, is if I look like you when I am pregnant for the first time…I will be all smiles and JOY!
You look AWESOME. all of the hard work and dedication to keep you and baby healthy definitely show 🙂
Haha that is a crazy dream!
I loved it when my hubby would put his hand on my belly and feel the baby kick…it was so bonding!
After my babies were born, I always had dreams that they were sleeping on my chest and I rolled over and they fell off or I smothered them! Apparently, this is a very common post-pregnancy dream. But it scares the daylights out of you! You wake up looking for the baby and realize that they are sleeping peacefully…in their bed….phew!
You look awesome! Love reading the updates. I have the line now too! It’s kind of weird, but I also kind of enjoy it. It’s almost like a temporary pregnancy tattoo, haha!
You look so beautiful! Whoever says that you look “so big” doesn’t know what the eff they’re talking about lol.
Good job at only looking pregnant in the mid-section! You look fab! 🙂
I delivered my daughter last year at 24 weeks 0 days (it was a very specific, isolated complication that has no extra likelihood of presenting in future pregnancies). You are definitely right about the host of medical complications, but after 3.5 exhausting months in the NICU, we brought home a healthy 5lb 13oz baby girl! I wouldn’t wish the ordeal on anybody, but she’s bouncing away in the Jumparoo next to me as I type – 100% healthy. I don’t know how we got so lucky!
I think that your dream just means that you know you are entering into a new phase of your life, but you know you are not quite ready for it yet. I think you feel like you are half way in the old life, half way in the new life, and there is no turning the ship around. Just a though!
You are so cute, really you look gorgeous!!! the pregnancy really suits you! and by the way I am a big fan of LOX it is so god, and the stroller looks very nice as well, at the beginning I thought it will be pink, but after Pilot’s post I got it why is neutral 🙂 anyway I am sure the baby will love it 🙂
He’s the one who kept saying “dark seed”! Hahaha! I was reading about Dennis Leary and his wife last night after watching the series finale of Rescue Me, and they had a child at only 6 months of growin’ more than 20 years ago. He’s 6’5 today and perfectly healthy. I’m pretty sure La Bambina is going to take her sweet time getting here, stop worrying!
I wish I had such vivid dreams! I can barely remember mine by the time I wake up!
PS. Your belly is ADORABLE!! I seriously hope I look like you when I’m pregnant!
Mmm your post-delivery meal is exactly what I would want too! Not being able to eat sushi/smoked fish is going to be the worst part of pregnancy for me! 😛
U are seriously so adorable Gina! I knew u would be the cutest pregnant girl ever!! Ahhhh dying to know what beautiful name u chose! I know pilot said your first born would be named after me, so maybe?!! Haha!
I know it’s not, I don’t blame u, not the coolest name : ) I want tonknow the name!! How long do I have to wait! Ha! Love u!
oooh can we know the baby boys name since you’re having a girl ?! family posts are my favorite!
You are adorable and I can’t wait to know your baby’s name!!! I bet it is so sweet.
You are beyond cute. I wish I looked like that when I was pregnant. 🙂 You’re going to be just fine! I remember when I was pregnant with my first…seems like everyone wanted to tell me their horror stories. It turns out that nothing was as bad as it sounded or as I thought it was going to be.
Well, maybe a positive story will help you feel a little more optimistic, too? I was born 3 months premature and although I spent 2 months after that in the hospital, my parents were able to take me home by Christmas and I was totally fine. That was over 23 years ago too :).
I read this shortly before seeing your new post and had to send you the link! It’s beautiful and OH so true. I have a 5 year old and 3 year old girls….I couldn’t help tearing up… =) it’s just lovely. and read it again in a few years and you’ll cry for the same and different reasons lol they change so much every year and your feelings change for them right along with it!!! I’m so so happy for the journey yall are about -sorry- yall are already on!
http://www.fromdatestodiapers.com/50-rules-for-dads-of-daughters
i read that last night and sent it to the husband. i totally cried and he got a little emotional over that one 😉
I had a dream while pregnant with my son that I “couldn’t make it to the hospital for the birth” (ha!!), and so my husband brought him home from the hospital. The baby was dressed in this little tuxedo and it was a boy (which is what they told me I was having), and my husband kept referring to the baby as he and him and son…Which was fine until I went to change a diaper and this baby was FULLY a girl. I told him “Babe, this baby is seriously a girl!” and he was insistent that it was a boy. Flashforward in the dream about four years and our “little girl” is walking around the house in coat-tails and a top hat! HA! Thank GOD that didn’t really happen! Crazy ass dreams is right; I had them even before I knew I was pregnant, too!
insane!!!
i had weird dreams before i knew i was pregnant too. that and the boob and hip pain were my biggest signs
eek, you have to be careful still with alcohol and breastfeeding!
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/breast-feeding-and-alcohol/AN02131
i’m not going to get crunk, but you can bet your booty i’m having a small glass after 10+ months without it 🙂
you’ll be fine as long as you let your body metabolize it 😉 It takes an hour to metabolize a serving of wine. No need to refrain completely! I am with you – I already have the bottle of wine sitting in my kitchen for post-delivery. HAHA.
I don’t know if you touched on it in an earlier post (sorry if you did), but what did you pick for a boy’s name before you found out you were having a baby Fitnessista? Just curious 🙂
i’m still saving it in case we decide to use it later 🙂
Love the post delivery meal request! I made mine already too 😀
I can’t wait to have a Blue Moon and a fancy sushi roll once we get home. Yum!
You look work! Keep up the good growing nugette!
Any chance you will tell us what the would-have-been boy name is?!
PS you rock the preggers look SO HARD! You look gorgeous.
i think we might keep it under wraps because we may use it for nugget #2 🙂
thank you, friend!!
I would love to know if you ever get rid of your “boob claws” or whatever you called them haha! I have stretch marks on my thighs from weight lifting and growing muscle, I just started using cocoa butter on them and cocoa butter body wash..hoping it helps!
You make being pregnant look so stylish!
<3
Wow lots of talk about listeria and alcohol and all kinds of stuff up there in the comments above me!
I wanted to chime in and commend you for DITCHING the underwire. Breaking out the lactation educator hat again…right now your body is building milk ductwork like crazy internally and you dont want wires pushing on that…now, or after delivery. Some women do wear underwire bras very soon post partum but I dont recommend it. And you don’t really want anything with too much compression.
Snug and support is one thing, out and out compression is another. (if a woman has to cut off her lactation for some reason, what we recommend is binding the breasts, i.e. compression) Compression leads to reduced milk supply as can underwires poking you. So good call.
And get some Bravado Bras. The best..best…best…nursing bras ever. The Original Nursing Bra is what you want 🙂
i hate underwire right now! it’s miserable.
so if i’m wearing sports bras that are way too tight on the girls, does that count as compression?
Just be careful. There is a difference between support and overly tight compression. I mean they don’t have to be floppy, and firm support can feel….nice. Because they are so heavy and maybe sore. But just watch it and don’t let things get too tight. Especially on the sides/armpit areas b/c that’s where TONS of your milk ductwork is. Not just so much in the actual breast, but also in the armpit area and side of breast area. Right where the edge of underwires tend to poke women is precisely where they should NEVER get poked!
And of course, just saying this so I said it…everyone’s experience is different. This is not universal. This is my opinion only based on my training as a lactation educator but it’s not medical advice 🙂
You could always bring the salmon (in its package) to your next midwife appointment and ask if it is safe to consume. Doesn’t hurt to ask, especially if you are craving it!
You look so great!! I can’t believe people are saying that you’re “so big”– you don’t look big at all to me!
Your baby will be PERFECT. She’s going to be healthy and she won’t leave your belly until the last possible minute. Why would she? You’re giving her the perfect home in there.
When my best friend gave birth, her first meal request was sushi 🙂 Hope someone brings you your salmon with goat cheese (combo sounds awesome btw, will have to try soon)!
you look amazing!!! these posts are the best. and i actually just laughed out loud when reading “I don’t think that’s a good idea mom, because she hasn’t really been born yet.” oh man.