24 weeks

On Tuesday we had our 24 week appointment. This was a considerably more chill appointment considering the last one was when we found out the gender of our little Baby Blue. It’s nice having all our appointments at the hospital we are giving birth at because the drive is really becoming second nature. It’s a really wonderful time for the two of us because we have a break in the middle of the day to spend together and just talk about baby stuff. I always look forward to our appointment days because everything stops and we just focus on us and Baby Boy.

We covered all the usual appointment stuff; pee on a stick, weigh yourself, and get your blood pressure done. I always love that when I am in the bathroom I can hear Andy out on the scale weighing himself usually followed by an update on his current weight. He always tries to tell the midwives what he weighs and they all seem so uninterested. Apparently the father’s weight has nothing to do with the health of the pregnancy… who knew?

This appointment we focused on birth classes and the policies of the hospital. We started talking about birthing options and such so it was nice to get a better picture of what the big day is going to look like. We booked our childbirth class and we start June 15th. We have to do it earlier than usual so that Andy can come. He has summer camps that he is working that will begin in July and take up all evenings. I like the lady we are going to work with and I think she will be a good fit for us. I’m sure I will post more about those classes once we start.

I got my glucose test drink for me to drink before I come for my 28 week appointment. This drink helps tests for a form of diabetes that can develop in pregnant women. All I have heard is that the drink is really gross and sweet so I got the orange flavor and I’m going to get it as cold as possible so I don’t taste as much of the drink. Hopefully I can just down it and get it over with. Wish me luck.

Before we left we got to hear Baby’s heartbeat and that is always awesome. He was moving around a lot at the time so we got to hear his heartbeat and all the swishing from him moving around. He has gotten a whole lot more bold in his movements and I can start to feel his bones moving around inside like when his joints are moving. It is a weird sensation, almost like very subtle grinding. I don’t know…. It’s hard to describe but it is definitely weird. I love it though because there is no longer any question of if I am feeling the baby or not.

Aaaaannnnnddddd, then my midwife looked at one more thing on my record and said “what was your starting weight?” and I gave her that again. And then she said “And you are at ### lbs today?”.

“Yes.”

“Ok. Well, that puts you about 4.5 lbs over what you should have gained by 24 weeks. It’s not a big deal but you are a little over.”

Excuse me? I’m sorry. Did you say I’ve put on too much weight? Friends, this is not good. Because if I am ahead of the game now at 24 weeks, I’ll be sumo wrestling by the time I reach 40 weeks. This whole time I’ve been worried about putting the weight on so apparently I can stop worrying. I haven’t made any changes to my diet since most of what I eat is all good for me and I need to snack through the day otherwise I get grumpy. Chubby and grumpy don’t mix well for me. With the exception of my Salt and Vinegar potato chips, occasional coke, and Nestle Dibs (which are the best thing in the world… or not….since I’m 4.5 lbs over my goal weight) I keep a pretty good diet so I decided that it must be my exercise that is really holding me back. So Andy and I have started walking when I get home from work. Our neighborhood makes a very nice circle to walk so we always do a few laps while dinner is baking or a load of laundry is finishing. I love our walks and so does baby. We spend about a third of every walk trying to come up with a name for him so I’m sure he gets a kick out of some of our name concoctions. There are too many to name but let’s just say that one Andy came up with today had bologna as the middle name. No one said these name discussions were productive, but they get me exercise. Here’s hoping I am back on target by 28 weeks. The weight gain increases so rapidly over the next set of weeks that I’m afraid that a snowball effect is going to get the best of me. I think I’ll be fine but it is still weird hearing that I could “back off on the sweets”.

I’ll end with my latest toy that I got. For our second anniversary (cotton gift) Andy bought me the Moby wrap off our baby registry. I was really excited to get it since I have two friends who use them and they always seem to have such success with them. They look so neat and I found one in an olive color that I love so I was super excited to open it and ‘try it on’. Now, when trying on a baby sling, it’s hard to get an idea of what it feels like if you don’t have a baby to put in it. So, who do we call? Our trusty bunny of course!

If you remember from an early post, he was our test baby for the stroller and so naturally he became my test baby for the moby wrap. I think he liked it. I like it because it really frees my hands so that if Bunny is fussy I can wrap him up and keep folding laundry or washing dishes. I think Bunny really enjoys being so close to my heartbeat and it really helps on days that he just refuses to lay down for a nap.