Bumpdate Weeks 21-24

I don’t know how 4 weeks got away from me before I wrote another pregnancy update but that’s kind of the way things have been lately! Time is just ticking by and I really feel like this baby girl is going to be here before we know it. I feel like Mike and I have both bonded so much more with our baby over the last 4 weeks which is probably strongly related to the fact that we now know she’s a girl, we’ve picked a name, and I can feel her move (and so can Mike) every day! I’ve started to dream about her as well. I just can’t wait to meet her!!!

How Far Along: 24 weeks (and 21, 22 and 23 weeks)

Baby Size:  As long as an ear of corn and  somewhere between 1-1.5 lbs.

Weight Gain: I’m up about 21 lbs. It’s a bit more than the pregnancy weight gain charts recommend but my doctor isn’t concerned and I feel great so I’m not worried. I trust that my body knows what it’s doing. At this point I’m right on track to gain the top end of the recommended scale, right around 35 lbs.

Movement: Yes yes yes! Now Mike can feel her and see her from the outside! I feel her multiple times a day, usually while I’m sitting still at my desk, watching TV, driving, and lying in bed. Apparently she can now feel my movements and is lulled to sleep when I move around a lot which is another reason I don’t feel her while being active.

Maternity Clothes/Preferred Attire: I’m starting to actually look pregnant now (I even had 1 stranger and 2 coworkers ask!) but my belly still isn’t quite ready for super tight tops, outside of when I work out. I think at this point I’m rotating about 8 tops for work which means I feel like I wear the same thing ALL THE TIME. I have about 3 tops that I borrowed that will be cute for the later months but even then, that’s still not a lot of variety. However, I’m totally sick of spending money on maternity clothes so I’m pretty much sticking to what I have for now.  Allison’s friend gave away several maternity items and I took them, one of which was a dress that I wore to the wedding we attended last weekend. This was a God send because I had purchased a potential dress online the week before and it was absolutely hideous on me (not surprising considering the model was a size 0 with a fake bump). I looked like a giant gumball in it (clearly I returned it).

Sleep: Sleep has been one of my favorite things lately but sadly I can’t seem to get enough. I still only wake up about 1x/night to pee which is normal for me but I am almost always tired when I wake up and during the day. One day this week I got 10 hours of sleep and I felt pretty amazing so maybe that’s the magic number but it’s clearly not realistic!

Cravings and Favorite Foods: The soda craving is definitely waning and the ice cream craving is accelerating. I also just randomly think of foods and think they sound really good, but I don’t actually go get them (ie a tuna melt this week- I haven’t had tuna in 3 years and for some reason it sounded soooo good).. Nutrition wise I’ve been doing great – outside of my evening ice cream (which is probably a 4-5 day a week thing right now) I don’t eat any sweets during the day. That’s a big improvement from daily dips into the candy jar which became routine earlier in my pregnancy. During the day I snack on fruit, fresh veggies with hummus and nuts only and usually have a big salad or veggie sandwich (or leftovers) for weekday lunch, so the ice cream is my daily treat! Weekends are a different story all together.

Food Aversions: Still don’t touch almonds or any kind of nutrition bar.

Exercise: After taking a few days to recover from the stomach bug I suffered over last weekend, I felt really good this week, getting in 2 barre classes, 2 yoga workouts, a spin class, a run, all of my 30 day squat challenge workouts, my pelvic floor workouts (which apparently I should be doing daily, not weekly – more on that later) and several walks! I’m going to take it as it goes but for now I’m feeling great and going with that. It helps that Mike start a new workout routine on Monday so he has been waking up early so I’m more motivated to also get up.

Mood: Excited, sometimes irritable. I definitely feel like I have more road rage than I used to! I also cry really easily, which has been an occurrence since the beginning of pregnancy.

Purchasing: The big purchase of this month was our glider chair!!! Wet got a beautiful, and comfortable glider from West Elm (they had a sale over Memorial Day for 20% off and my Dad helped us purchase it) and I couldn’t be more excited about it. My friend Allison has the chair and as soon as I sat in it I knew it was the one. I’ve had a hard time finding a chair that is tall enough for Mike and I both to rest our heads on the back (I’m 5’9″, he’s 6’3″) and this one fits that criteria. Plus it’s adorable and totally comfortable in all ways. I had multiple people tell me how important a comfortable rocking/glider chair is due to the fact that I’ll be spending hours and hours nursing in it. This will hands down be the most expensive item in the nursery so it feels good to have it purchased and on its way.

Reading: Mike and I listened to the first 5 chapters of Baby Wise in the car on the ride to/from Yosemite. We are hopeful that the principles in the book will help us get our baby on a good routine and help us all get some sleep! Now we need to finish the book before we get into the Bradley Method ones (we had our first class yesterday – more on that later!).

Symptoms: Sleepiness, occasional moodiness, hunger and a growing, itchy belly! I feel lucky that my symptoms are so mild right now.

Missing: Running feeling easy.

Best Moments of the Last Few Weeks: Telling our family the name we chose (I’ll tell eventually), feeling lots of baby kicks and watching Mike’s reaction when he feels them, and finally having people recognize that I’m actually pregnant! Yay for a real bump!

Dreaming About: Our babymoon! We’re heading to Catalina for a long weekend at the end of the month (early Friday to Sunday afternoon) and I am so excited for some relaxation, good food and pampering (I hope to get a pre-natal massage).

Three weeks til I start the 3rd trimester!