26 Weeks

I'm a little late on the post this week, but I'll chalk it up to being busy (it's the best excuse).  I officially went back to work full time last week and it sucks!  I know boo hoo, right?  But I got seriously spoiled working part-time, getting to come home for lunch, hang with Henry and the cats, procrastinate on my writing... not that it's gotten much better at work because of the stupid IT people and their big-brother hawk eyes (they now do not want us using mobile media devices on our computers so I've been too scared to use my USB drive that is my life because I worry that they'll catch on somehow and remotely erase it), but even so I do tend to get more homework done there in general.  I've got one more week of taking class and two more weeks of teaching class then a short summer break before it's back to school again.  Henry is working remotely, doing some research and writing assignments.  It might be quiet for him for a bit as his boss is now in Austria for over two weeks, making me super jealous with all the wonderful Viennese deserts and beautiful music I'm sure she's enjoying.  The cats are excited, however, to have his undivided cuddling attention for a bit.

• What's the Baby Doing?: The hair on baby's head is longer and more plentiful and more fat is accumulating under the skin with each passing day.  The footprints and fingerprints are now formed.  All the components that make up the eyes have developed and the baby will open her eyes in about two weeks.
• Weight Gain: Yay!  A normal week; 1 pound.
• Showing?:  Definitely filling out those maternity clothes.  No picture this week (sorry!!), check back in a couple days for week 27 and I'll definitely have a picture.
• Symptoms: Hello Braxton Hicks.  Had them on Monday night really bad, but Henry took me for a walk around the block and they went away.  Ginny has been doing the Macarena in my belly for a while now; she doesn't ever seem to stop moving!  It's great though, especially when you can see the little kicks move my stomach around.  I've also hit the stage where I want to eat everything in sight.  It's like a constant feeding frenzy and I have to make sure to have a snack at least every two hours.  My new favorite thing?  Cereal before bed.  Don't know why but there is something magical about a big bowl of cereal around 9:00pm.
• For a while I thought the pre-bedtime cereal gorge was helping keep me asleep because I've had a couple pretty awesome nights this week.  But alas, I do still wake-up pretty often.  Now it's not just once to use the bathroom, but also because I'm not comfortable in one position the entire night anymore.
• Movement: ♫ Dale a tu cuerpo alegría Macarena, Heeeeeey Macarena! ♪ Fun Fact: Did you know that song is actually a rumba? 
• Best Moment of the Week: I found out I passed my glucose tolerance test with flying colors.  No gestational diabetes for me.  Let's go get some cake!
• What I Miss: Hearing about a food (any food) and not wanting to immediately eat it.  Now I really want cake.  And cereal.  Henry has already been talked into take-out pasta on Monday night and is making me french toast this weekend.  I think he's still so happy I'm eating I could probably talk him into just about anything when it comes to food without getting the side-eye.
• What I'm Looking Forward To: Next week we enter... the third trimester.  The end is in sight!
• Milestones: I guess the Braxton Hicks, my body is starting to get ready for giving birth which means that at some point it will actually happen.  I have yet to decide if this is a good thing or not.
• Henry's Quote of the Week: My favorite: "You too could be right all the time, you just have to really think things through before you say them." Henry's favorite: "This line is ridiculously long for 8 o'clock at night, when I get to the front I'm going to sh*t on the counter!" (waiting in line for a ridiculously long time to pick up my prescription at Walgreens)
• I'm giving you an extra quote of the week from my friend Joselyne because it was extra funny.
• "I was so bored I couldn't even be confused."  I feel that way too Jos, a lot.

Until next week!  Or really, a couple more days.

21 - 25 Weeks

Well, Henry predicted it.  When I started this he said, "You know once school gets going you're going to stop updating your blog."  And unfortunately he was right.  I just got very bogged down in school and work, plus a bit of traveling, and well, unfortunately the updates kinda fell to the wayside.  I sincerely apologize to you guys who are actually reading this and especially to the ones who thought something had gone horribly wrong with me.  Here's the rundown of what was going on in our lives for the past 4 weeks:
21 Weeks - Not much happened this week so I really have absolutely no excuse for not posting. :-(
22 Weeks - Henry left on Monday morning, heading to San Diego to take the California Bar exam.  My mom picked him up an was gracious enough to feed him a few lunches and dinners while he was down there.  On Wednesday I went to the doctor's again to get more pictures of the baby's spine.  Everything looked great, Ginny was constantly moving and annoying ultrasound techs, but I love watching her.  I actually go to see and feel her punch me at one point which was amazing.  The only thing that was iffy was that they determined that she is measuring big and they want me to go in for another (yes another!!) ultrasound at 28 weeks to chart her growth.  I think that they just have her due date wrong.  She was always measuring "big" on the ultrasounds even when she looked like a sea monkey so neither Henry nor I are worried.
23 Weeks - Henry met me in Seattle after the bar was over and we drove to Tri-Cities to visit with Henry's family for a couple days.  This was our last big trip out to see family so it was nice to spend some time.  Marsha (Henry's mom) and Alma (Henry's grandma) got to feel Ginny kick which was really special.  We had a great time and it was very relaxing for me.  We also got to see Tracy, Shayne and Alexandra on our way to and from Tri-Cities, which was wonderful as always, as well as some of our college friends.  Henry's friend Nick and his wife, and my friend Jenn and her husband are also expecting so we had some fun trading pregnancy stories!
24 Weeks - Back in Chicago and no breathers before getting back in the game.  I went straight from the airport to class, then had to teach a make up class the next day and teach a regularly scheduled class the day after that.  Still going to work part time, but that's all ending soon as I will be back full time starting at 26 weeks.  Henry got a bit of a break as he didn't start working remotely for the Law Offices of Sandra Morris until this week.  He spent most of his time cleaning the house after the cats had it to themselves for the week we were gone.  Not he's super happy to be doing some real legal work!  We also bought our first piece of baby equipment this week, a pack and play with a bassinet which will be Ginny's bed until we move to San Diego and get her some real furniture.

25 Weeks - Had our appointment yesterday, we have one more four week appointment, then we start going in every two weeks until the home stretch after 35 weeks, at which point we go in every week.  Starting to inch up on the third trimester, only two more weeks to go!  Last weekend my nephew Billy came to visit us in Chicago.  It was his first plane ride and he did it all by himself!  We had a great time visiting the Museum of Science and Industry and the Field Museum and running around Chicago.  I am proud to say I held up pretty well, even outlasting the nine-year-old one day.  Henry had really been looking forward to seeing the exhibits himself, especially the one at the Museum of Science and Industry about storms.  They stood in a simulated tornado and made tsunamis and generally ran amok.  Lots and lots of fun!

• What's the Baby Doing?: The big news is that Ginny's lungs went through a major development these past few weeks and now she has a better than 50-50 chance of surviving outside if she had to be born today.  Every week the odds get better which is very exciting.  Her hands are now fully developed and she is exploring her surroundings now.  At this point, average babies are 15 inches long and weigh 1.5 pounds.
• Weight Gain: Sorry it's been too many weeks to come up with an actual number.  But I asked the doctor how I was doing and she said I was absolutely fine.  The nice part is that she told me to measure my weight gain from what I was when I got pregnancy, not from what I was after I lost the weight in the first trimester, so by that I really haven't gained that much.

• Showing?: Holy belly explosion Batman! 

• Symptoms: Feeling pretty good these past couple weeks so not many symptoms.  My lower back has been really starting to hurt, but thankfully Henry is very free with the back rubs :-)  I'm also getting a lot of stretching and pulling sensations around the belly but that's really not a shocker.
• Sleep:  On and off.  I find that when I eat a little something before bed I sleep a little better.  Strange that I get the most hungry around 9:00pm.
• Movement: Ginny is an active little one!  It feels like she's constantly moving and kicking.  Of course when we were visiting Henry's family she would stop whenever someone put their hand on my belly.  On days when I do a lot of walking, like when we were at the museums, she's pretty quiet but she wakes up as soon as I sit down.  Just one more sign that she's going be just like Henry and unable to sit quietly for more than ten minutes.
• Best Moment of the Week: I'm going to claim memory issues on this one and just say all the moving.
• What I Miss: Strangely deli meat has been a big one the last couple weeks because whenever I try to go grab a quick sandwich I realize I can't eat any of them because they all have stupid deli meat!  And now all I can think about is salami.
• What I'm Looking Forward To:  The third trimester feels so close now, which means that the end is in sight.  It will be very nice to meet the little thing who's main occupation right now seems to be kicking and punching me.
• Milestones:  As of 24 weeks Ginny is now able to survive outside of me which is major major milestone!  If she really really had to be born tomorrow there's a good chance she would be just fine which makes so much of my anxiety disappear.  However, I do think she should stay in there and cook a while longer!  :-)

New category starting!!  It's Henry's quote of the week, taken completely out of context and added here for your reading pleasure.  Henry would like it if you scooped up his wisdom like glimmering pearls of, well, wisdom.

• Henry's Quote of the Week: "It's okay, I didn't marry you for your math skills."

I promise to be more on track from here on out.  If not, feel free to harass me until I get my butt in gear!

 

24 Week Appointment

Time for the glucose screening for gestational diabetes!  Yuck.  Basically I had to drink a bottle of super-concentrated orange-flavored straight sugar, and then sit for an hour before having my blood drawn.  While waiting my hour we had our appointment.  As our doctor is part of a group, we're trying to see every doctor in the group at least once because if I go into labor outside of regular business hours we get whichever doctor is on call.  Hopefully I'll deliver sometime between 9 and 5 so that I can have my own doctor, but since that's not really something I can control, its best we see everyone so we don't have a stranger showing up in our delivery room.  So far we like most of them, but they all have very different personalities.  This one was not very excited for question and answer time, which was too bad for her since I actually had a bunch of questions, including the all-important "can I have a glass of wine at Joselyne's wedding?"  In case anyone was wondering, the answer was yes.  As far as the glucose test goes, I'll get my results later this week.  Fingers crossed I can still eat sugar and carbs!