24 Week Update

We had another doctor’s visit today. Everything went very well. This visit was not as eventful as the past ones have been. She (the doctor) mostly wanted to measure my belly to see how much it has grown. I guess the number of centimeters should correspond to the number of weeks along you are. Mine matched perfectly! They also weighed me and said that I was on track on weight gain. I did finally cross the 200 pounds mark…ouch! But that is ok. I am 6 feet tall after all! We listened to the heart beat as well. The baby’s heart rate is at 140 now. It was 150 at my last visit. He is getting bigger and is right in the range where he should be. Everything looks completely healthy and normal! I think I am getting to the stage where they want to start seeing me more often. So far my visits have been 4 weeks apart. Now we are moving to 3. Before I go in next, I have to go do a glucose screening to look for gestational diabetes and anemia. I am not at risk for it, but they test everyone just to be safe I guess. I hear it is not fun. You have to drink this gross cool-aid stuff and sit around for an hour or so. No big deal. I will just do it and get it over with!

The main new thing with our little boy this month is that he is moving around like crazy! I finally started to feel him right around the 23 week mark. It was pretty exciting. I was lying in bed one Saturday morning, trying to see if I could feel him. Under my hands, I could feel subtle movements in there of him shifting around. Then all of a sudden, there was this great big kick! It was so exciting! The next day when he was doing it again, I grabbed Chris’s hand and had him feel it too. He thought it was pretty cool. He has had the opportunity to feel him move a few more times since which is great. All this week, I have just been sitting at my desk working, when all of a sudden there he is. He is a busy little guy and I love that he reminds me that he is there.

Next week we start childbirth classes. I am excited to get going on that and learn more about what we will need to do. I researched all the methods and decided to do the Bradley Method. It was the most thorough of all the classes I read about. It is a 12 week long course, and each class is 2.5 hours long. They give you homework to do each week to keep you practicing until the method is firmly engrained in your head. In addition, you have to keep a food and exercise journal that you have to share with the class each week. Talk about accountability! I hope it is everything that I have read and heard about. Being a new mom and never having done this before, I am eager to learn as much as I can so it seems like a good fit.

We have registered for baby stuff at Target and Pottery Barn Kids. Thanks to my sister-in-law Amber! She helped me identify everything I will need. She has two small children of her own, so she knew what bells and whistles I needed to be looking for on just about everything. I have 16 weeks left to my pregnancy, so I know Chris and I will be focused on finally filling out the bedroom next to ours that will be the baby’s room. We bought the crib awhile back. And thanks to my mom, we have most of the linens for it (picture above!). Next week I am going to go get the dresser that matches, and I think Chris and I are going to work on building some shelves in the closet. It is a super long closet, and I know we will need room to organize toys and books as well as clothes. We will keep posting pictures as the nursery begins to fill out!

We have also finally picked a name. I am sorry to say that we will not be sharing it until our boy comes. The reason why is that we had such a hard time agreeing on a boy’s name. Chris didn’t like anything! I guess I am out of touch with what would get a boy beat up on a playground! Granted, our child will likely be a good foot taller than any other kid on the playground, so good luck to anyone who challenges him!! Anyways, when we finally found something we both liked, we didn’t want to risk someone saying “oh I hate that name!” or “I knew someone with that name and they were such a jerk!” etc. It would take us forever to come up with something else, so this will just have to be a surprise. I can tell you that his initials will be NRW. The last name will be Wilkerson. That’s all we will share!

Thanks for reading, and hope everyone is doing well!