25 weeks 3 days

Things are going well on the pregnancy front these days.  Dave has been busy painting all of the nursery furniture, which is coming along nicely.  I took "before" pics and will share everything after it's all done.  I'm pretty excited to be putting the nursery together.  And a little anxious.  Just around 3 1/2 months to go!

Here are some tidbits I've collected this week from the various pregnancy update resources I have:

*Feel like you're carrying the Karate Kid with all the kicking going on? Your baby is actually practicing all kinds of movements that will eventually be used in life on the outside — including pedaling against your belly, a sort of prewalking skill. (I've been feeling this lately! It's crazy! When I lay down at night on my side, it feels like he's "running" against the side of my body.  In a location I didn't think he'd be able to reach.  Very crazy indeed.)

*Your baby measures about 9.2 inches from crown to rump and weighs almost 2 pounds now. Its hearing is fully developed. As the fetus reacts to sounds, its pulse increases. Your baby will even move in rhythm to music.  (Awesome, I want to feel my baby dance!)

*During the remainder of your pregnancy you will grow about a ½ inch per week. If you have been watching your weight throughout your pregnancy and have been sticking to a balanced diet, your weight gain should be between 16 and 22 pounds.

*About 4 out of 10 babies born now may survive (with intensive care ervices). 

*Look who's looking. Your baby's eyes — which have been closed for the past few months (so that the retina, the part of the eye that allows images to come into focus, could develop) — are beginning to open.  What this means is that your baby is able to see what's going on now (unfortunately the view in your uterus isn't all that exciting). But do try this at home for kicks (baby's that is): Shine a flashlight at your stomach. Your baby might kick in response (as in: "Get that light out of my eyes!").  (I read somewhere that this could hurt the baby's eyes, so I think I'll resist.)

Krewson has definitely been keeping me entertained lately with all his movement.  In fact, yesterday I was sitting in a work meeting when I felt him start to go crazy.  I looked down, and it looked like there were fireworks going off inside my belly.  It was bumping and bulging all over the place.  I started to get embarrassed, so I tried laying my arm over my belly to hide it.  No use.  My arm started bumping all over the place.  I didn't know what to do, so I just kinda tried to look around and pretend nothing was happening.  It was actually quite humorous and it took a lot of self-control to keep my face straight.  And now, even as I write this, I look down and you can see my belly wiggling all over.  It's so amazing.  I wonder what he's doing in there.

It also amazes me when I feel all the places he can reach now.  Sometimes I will feel his movement way down near my pubic bone and other times it will be up near my lungs.  I'm also feeling on my left and right sides, like all the way over at where you bend when you bend straight to the side.  It makes me wonder where all my internal organs are currently hanging out.

In terms of pregnancy pain, I'd say my biggest complaint is that my sciatic nerve appears to be pinched and so I have constant tension above my right butt cheek.  It feels like I need to crack my back or something, but nothing removes the pain.  Sometimes if I stand or sit wrong, it will shoot pains all through my back, so I have to be careful about not making any movements that are too quick.  I asked the doc about it and he said there's not much I can do other than Tylenol and a heating a pad.  So I will just deal.

I also appear to have a mild case of diastasis recti, in which my abs have separated.  When I flex my stomach a certain way (which happens to be the way most people get up from laying down, roll over, etc.), my stomach forms a triangular shape when you look down from above.  When I'm flexing, you can stick a couple fingers between the two hard halves of my abs in the area around my belly button and it's complete mush in the middle. It's somewhat freakish.  I've read online that if I do the type of movements that cause the triangular shape, it can actually make it worse.  The link I provided above ("diastasis recti") gives the following precautions:

Avoid all activities that place stress on the midline, that stretch or overly expand the abdominal wall through everyday activities, exercise or inhalation techniques.

Some Types of Movement to Avoid
•Movements where the upper body twists and the arm on that side reaches backward, such as during a tennis serve.
•Exercises that require lying backward over a large exercise ball.
•Yoga postures that stretch the abs, such as “cow pose,” “up-dog,” all backbends, and “belly breathing.”
•Most traditional abdominal exercises that work the exterior abdominal muscles, such as crunches and oblique curls.
•All exercises that cause your abdominal wall to bulge out upon exertion.
•Rising from a supine position by rolling up and twisting at the same time. Instead, roll first onto your side, and then use your arms to help push yourself up to a sitting position.
•Lifting and carrying very heavy objects.
•Intense coughing while your muscles are unsupported.

So, um, that leaves me with about two abdominal exercises I can do.  Awesome.  In the meantime, it's pretty entertaining to show my friends the triangle on my belly and offer them the opportunity to feel the giant gap between my ab muscles.  You can feel straight to my insides...I suppose you'd be hitting the uterus. I just hope it doesn't start bulging out like they've said it can.  I don't want a perma-triangle preggo belly.

Alright, well, to finish off the post, here is a pic of me at 25 1/2 weeks, and also a diagram showing what my insides supposedly look like right now.  Enjoy. :)

24 weeks 5 days

I think Dave and I found a daycare!!  I am so relieved.  We just went and checked it out this morning.  It's called Kiddie Garden, and it's run by a couple mothers who decided to open a small personal child care service.  They rent a townhome exclusively for the daycare and have designated rooms for different child age groups.  It's just a bit out of the way for Dave on his way to work, and actually could be on the way to work for me too if I didn't mind going that way. (The interstate in that direction gets very backed up and can add 10-30 minutes to my trip depending on the morning.)  It definitely wasn't a giant, fancy, brand-new, gleaming day care, but it was comfortable and personal.  I really liked the lady who would be taking care of Krewson, and the place seemed very safe and sanitary.  They follow all of North Carolina's daycare regulations, and they're CPR-certified.  There are usually only a couple infants there each day, and it seems like they get a lot of personal attention.  And most of all, the cost is over $450 cheaper per month than where we thought we might be taking Krew.  What a relief.  All we have to do is put down a $50 deposit and we have a spot secured.

Thanks so much to Breanne for letting me in on this little Kiddie Garden secret.  And thank God for answered prayers. :)  Now Dave and I can have a little bit of breathing room with our finances!

24 weeks 4 days

Well I'm over 6 months pregnant now!  How crazy is that. :)  I had my 24-week prenatal appointment yesterday and everything was fine.  Krew started moving around during the dopplar, and we had trouble hearing his heart because all we heard was the "swoosh swoosh gurgle" of his movements. He settled down after a bit and the doc got a good listen.  After my next appointment, I start going to the doctor every two weeks.  It makes me excited, because that means we're on the definite home stretch. :)

Our friends Emily and Sion are due to have their baby girl tomorrow!!  Last I talked to Emily (this morning) there was no word of Ellie making her appearance, but I know that Sion and Emily are quite anxious. :)  I can't wait, either!  Here's a pic of me and Emily this past weekend...her at 9 1/2 months, me at 6 months.

Some information on Besido Krewson's latest developments, based on various sources:

* He's about a foot long head to foot and about 1 1/2 lbs.  (I'm thinking our Besido might be a bit bigger than that. My uterus yesterday measured 26 cm, which is 2 cm bigger than average.)

* He may put on as much as 6 ounces this week. That is 1/3 of his total body weight. That is comparable to a 130 lb. woman gaining 43 pounds in one week!  (Pretty impressive.)

* The lungs are gaining blood vessels now, preparing them for taking over the task of getting oxygen into the blood stream.

* He is working out his own waking and sleeping periods, and they won't always coincide with yours. That explains the tap dance routine at 2 am.  (Ah, yes.)

* Unborn babies respond to music, so go ahead and expose yours to lots of different types. See which ones your baby likes the best. (I think we're set in that department...he's been listening to music for quite some time now.)

I also wanted to share some pics of some items friends/family have purchased for us lately.

First, there's the little onesie that Jaclyn got me from Target.  (You can read about that shopping trip here: 22 weeks 4 days.)


Isn't it so cute??

Then, while we were in Florida for Dave's ultimate frisbee nationals, my grandma gave us two more outfits.


So sweet.  I like the hat. :)

Finally, my friend Vanessa (you can check out her blog over at Blue Ridge Baby) made us a little cap to keep Krew's head from getting cold.  She knitted it herself, which is pretty impressive. :)



Thanks so much to everyone for all the gifts!!

I've also made some personal purchases for Krew as I've seen things on sale online.  I'll have to share those in a future post. :)

23 weeks 3 days

I'm thinking that our little Besido is going through a crazy-fast growth spurt right now.  Nothing about my midsection feels normal.  In fact, sometimes it downright hurts.  My skin feels like it might snap from how tightly it's stretched, I'm finding it hard to breathe, and I'm also getting rib pain.  (I looked this up online, and apparently it's normal despite the fact that none of my reading forewarned me it might happen.  Check out the article here.)  And you know that feeling you get when you've eaten way too much and you feel like you might explode and you just can't wait for some of your food to digest so the pressure goes away??  Yeah, well, apparently pregnancy feels like that 24/7.  At least for me.  Who would have known. 

Top that off with plantar fasciitis in my left foot (I guess due to feet expanding, extra weight, etc.?), nightly heel pain, daily swelling in both feet, indigestion, acid reflux, back pain, and difficulty bending over or getting up from the floor or laying down, and you've got yourself one officially-pregnant Kara.  Whoo hoo.

Is it worth it?  You bet.  Am I enjoying it?  Eh...not-so-much.  At least not right now.  Maybe I just need some more time to adjust.

It is pretty cool, though, how much I can feel now.  Today I felt actual body parts, not just a kick or a bump or hiccups.  Like I put my hand on my belly and felt something hard underneath, and then the hard thing moved across my hand.  It just about made me squeel out loud.  It is sooooooo weird.

Oh and I had read that the baby can startle from a loud noise, but I hadn't experienced it yet.  Then, this morning, I started the coffee grinder, and all of a sudden little Krew started kicking and wiggling like nothing else.  It made me smile. :)

I've now gained between 7 and 8 inches in my waist at my belly button.  That doesn't sound like much, so maybe a picture would be a better representation. :)  Here is my 23 1/2 week belly:

Quite the change from below, at 7 weeks!!

And it's going to just keep getting bigger...