Oh my goodness, 24 weeks already! I’m sure I am preaching to the mommy choir when I say that I just wish time would slow down. This pregnancy continues to fly by and I’m always surprised to check off another week on the baby countdown. I’m into the 6th month of my pregnancy, feeling pretty great, and excited to fill you in on the latest with our baby with a 24 week bump update.
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How far along am I?
I’m currently 24 weeks into the pregnancy and at the start of my 6th month. Six months! I truly cannot believe I’m already this far along. I’m starting to get nervous about all of the changes in store for Rob and I when the baby arrives and I’m not really in a hurry for that day to arrive. Right now I’m (mostly) comfortable and I feel a connection to the baby each time I feel it squirming and nudging inside my stomach. I’m truly enjoying this stage of my pregnancy and I’m in no hurry to rush the process.
How much weight have I gained?
As of my last checkup, I’m up about 10 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. Honestly, I can’t believe it’s only 10 pounds. It seems like there is so much more of me than there used to be and if the scale is only up 10 pounds, I will happily accept that little miracle on the scale.
How am I feeling?
Pretty good! I still get tired in the afternoons, but not as tired as I used to be! I only have occasional bouts of nausea these days and my appetite is back! Fortunately, I don’t feel like I’m starving all the time, so I’m not eating much more than I did before I was pregnant. (My meal size is about the same, I just eat a few more snacks throughout the day.)
The bump is definitely beginning to interfere with my daily activities – especially putting on shoes and socks.My stomach feels uncomfortably squished every time I bend forward to put on footwear. I have pretty long arms, but they are no match for my growing baby bump. Thankfully, Michigan weather is beginning to improve so I have been able to incorporate Tieks into my outfit more often (which only take about 3 seconds to put on each foot).
Am I getting any exercise?
Sadly, no! As a kindergarten teacher, I’m on my feet a lot and I probably walk a few miles each day within my school, so I let myself pretend that my time at school counts as exercise.
How am I sleeping?
Better, but still not amazing. Thanks to my pregnancy pillow, the pain in my hips at night has mostly subsided. I still toss and turn a little at night, but it’s an improvement from what it was. Like every other pregnant woman, I also wake up in the middle of the night needing to use the restroom. Thankfully, Rob comes to bed about 2 hours later than I do and we’ve worked out a pretty good system. He wakes me up when he comes to bed (usually around midnight) and tells me to go to the bathroom. I begrudgingly get out of bed and go. It’s much better than when I wake up feeling the urge on my own because I don’t spend any time procrastinating about going until it nearly becomes a “bathroom emergency.” I also feel a little satisfied that I have over 5 hours left to sleep when I return from my midnight bathroom break. Somehow, knowing how much time I still have to sleep makes the trip out of bed seem a little less painful.
Are you having a boy or a girl?
We still don’t know! And we fully intend to be surprised when we finally get to meet our baby. I’m often asked if I have a hunch about what we are having and I truly don’t have any idea.
Do you have any names picked out?
Not yet. Rob and I have decided to keep the baby’s name private until after he or she arrives. We’ve sloooowly been working to narrow down the list. At the moment, we have it narrowed down to 2 girl names and 7 boy names. We do have a boy’s middle name selected, so that has to count for something.
Are you feeling the baby move?
Oh yes. The baby is already on a schedule of sorts and I can feel our little one moving around at predictable parts of the day (when I’m laying in bed after my alarm goes off, when I sit down to eat lunch, on my drive home from work, while I watch TV at night, and of course when I am curled up in bed and ready to fall asleep.)
And in an exciting twist, as I sit on the sofa this Sunday morning (finishing the details for this very blog post), I felt our little one squirming around. I’m still in my pjs and wearing a semi-snug non-maternity t-shirt and I just happened to glance at my belly and was shocked to see little ripples of motion across my belly. I knew that I would see the movement at some point, but I didn’t think I’d see it so soon since the app on my phone says the baby only weighs 1.5 pounds right now. I must say, this was a very cool first. It’s almost like our little one knows that so many people enjoy reading these updates and was saying “hello!” Perhaps Rob and I have a future blogger on our hands…
Am I craving anything?
I really don’t have a lot of cravings. At least, my cravings aren’t any stronger than they were before I was pregnant. I have an appetite and at any given moment, I will prefer one food choice over another. But “craving” is a little too strong of a word for my food preferences. The foods I find myself constantly reaching for are cheese and crackers, apples, pears, and Cheez-It crackers.
Any food aversions?
After several months free of chicken, I’m finally starting to warm back up to the idea of eating poultry. I’ve eaten chicken a handful of times during the past few weeks and it’s good to have more meat options again. That being said, I’m considerably more picky about the chicken I consume than I was before I was pregnant. So there’s still a bit of a lingering aversion there.
Any stretch marks yet?
Thankfully, not yet. I can’t even attribute my luck so far to a particularly expensive skin care regimen. I’ve just been continuing my post-shower routine of applying good ol’ Suave hand and body lotion to all of my skin from my neck to my toes. I always add a little extra lotion to the baby bump and say a prayer that it helps keep the stretch marks away. So far, it seems to be working. Now that the real expansion has begun, I’m going to cross my fingers and hope that the lotion keeps doing it’s job.
Have you registered yet?
A few weeks ago, Rob and I dipped our toes into the baby registry waters. We were overwhelmed when we entered the store and we still feel overwhelmed by it now. We have two registries and everything on those registries is sort of a place-holder for now. There’s a lot of overlap that we need to clean up – especially baby bedding. We pretty much scanned everything we thought we might want and vowed to go online and clean up our registries later. We still have to research car seats and strollers before we add those items to our registry. So our registry is a current work-in-progress (much like everything else baby-related in our life right now.)
How’s the nursery coming along?
I’m happy to report that the nursery finally has furniture! It’s pretty sparse – the room only has a dresser, a crib, and a mirror (which may or may not stay in that room after the baby arrives). But the nursery feels like a blank canvas that’s ready for a few simple decorations and a baby. You’ll notice that I said “few, simple decorations.” Anyone who has seen my kindergarten classroom seems to have very high expectations for the baby’s room. I get lots of questions about paint colors and a theme, but the truth of the matter is I love the white walls in our baby’s room and a theme doesn’t feel very important to me.
Since we don’t know what we are having, the baby’s room will have neutral gray and white decor. As you probably already know, Rob and I are saving for a house, so investing a small fortune into the cutest, most-pinterest worthy nursery doesn’t seem like the best use of our money. This baby will be loved immensely, but will have a very simple nursery. And I’m ok with that.
How is Rob doing?
There’s a reason it took me so long to get married… I was waiting for the perfect husband. Rob continues to be the most loving and supportive partner I could imagine for this whole parenting thing. He works hard to provide for the baby and I (and I don’t just mean financially- he’ll eagerly do the smallest and largest tasks that I request if I’m too tired or not quite in the mood to do them myself.)
I actually have a really sweet and funny Rob story to share…
A few weeks back, Rob was facing a challenging day at work so I sent him a text wishing him well and let him know that I love him. He replied back that he loves “both of you too” and I was instantly confused when I read the word both. At first I panicked and wondered who I had group texted that message to. I double checked and saw that the message just went to Rob and sure enough, it was a private conversation between the two of us. I was still really, really confused. Then, after a few seconds, I finally looked at the emojis Rob used and realized that he sent that text to me and the baby. Apparently, I’m still getting used to the fact that my body is currently the home of a whole other person but Rob is already embracing that fact!
Now if the poor guy could just feel the baby kick as often as I do, we will be in great shape! Right now, I think the baby can sense when it’s not my hand on the belly. Our little active peanut usually gets very shy when Rob tries to feel the baby moving around.
top via Stitch Fix / necklace via Rocksbox / watch / pants
On a final note, you may have read Rob’s most recent blog post about his journey as a photographer. He let the cat out of the bag and shared a little Crazy Together secret – the fact that he almost never takes my photo for the blog because both of our tempers flair up a bit every time he tries. Rob was kind enough not to point any fingers in his post, but the fact of the matter is that I’m a bit of a perfectionist and it’s really difficult for me to sit back and trust my husband to take a great photo without constantly redirecting him.
I’m proud to share that Rob shot the photos I used in this post and it didn’t result in a fight! We consulted each other about what would work best as he was taking my photo, but I pretty much let him have the reins while I stayed in front of the camera and just let Rob do his thing. I’d say his CreativeLive photography classes have really paid off. We will be sure to share a photography update with you soon!
