This might not seem like a huge deal to some people, but in the words of Phil Dunphey from Modern Family, "This is actually kind of a grande deal." Read on if you want to know why...
How Far Along: 24 weeks and 3 days.
Size of Baby: According to babycenter.com, Hailey is 12 inches and about 1.3 pounds.
Maternity Clothes: Yep! Wear the belly band all the time, but mostly I'm wearing maxi-skirts. Much more comfortable!
Movement: Hailey isn't spazzing as much as she used to. It's more gentle kicks and rolls and somersaults. Although, I can always count in her to start kicking the heartbeat monitor whenever my home-health nurse checks her heartbeat. Girl likes her space ;)
Sleep: Yep! Andrew was on this horrible habit of waking up at 5 am every day for about a month. It was awful, and we tried everything. Crying it out, putting him to bed earlier, putting him to bed later, adjusting his nap schedule, EVERYTHING! Finally this past week he decided to go back to 6:30. I feel like a new woman. At least he took good naps during the day, so I always got in at least one nap.
What I miss: So, my OB actually suggested that I get in a light walk/cardio 20 minutes each day. It's not as much exercise as I did with Andrew, but I'm grateful that I can get up and move around a bit more.
Cravings: Nothing really, just super hungry all the time.
Aversions: Again, nothing really. Sometimes if something is too saucy or if I have too much salad dressing on my salad then that can cause problems, but nothing too big.
Symptoms: So lately my ankles have been swelling up. Lovely, right? I'm drinking a ton of water and make sure to put my feet up as much as I can, but it doesn't really seem to help. Oh well, it's just the side effects of the progesterone shots :) But it's worth it!
Best Moment:Making it to 24 weeks. Let me explain why this is such a big deal. The day after we found out Hailey was a girl, we had another scare as my body started going into labor yet again. They put me on an IV because apparently I was dehydrated (despite the fact that I had been drinking 100 oz of water each day), and they gave me an extra progesterone shot. After being monitored for 3 hours, the contractions slowed down and became irregular and far apart again, so they sent me home. My OBGYN could tell that I was frustrated because I had been taking it easy and drinking enough water, and also getting these progesterone shots weekly. She told me that as long as I could make it to 24 weeks that there was a good chance that Hailey would be able to survive outside the womb. Obviously we are shooting for 37 weeks, but as long as I made it to 24 weeks, we wouldn't have to worry about Hailey not being able to survive outside the womb. She'd obviously have to spend a lot of time in the NICU, but the chances of us losing her were slim. Since that scare 4 weeks ago, things have been going really well. No more scares, the contractions have stayed irregular, and Hailey is looking healthy. The 20 minutes of walking/cardio is really helping with my energy level and oddly enough, it is keeping the contractions irregular (totally counter-intuitive, but hey! It's working!). I'm feeling more and more confident that we can keep Hailey cooking until 37 weeks. I'm sure some of my friends who have gone past their due dates want to give me a swift punch to the face for saying this, but I will cry out of happiness if I make it to 41 weeks. I know, I would be so huge and uncomfortable, but I would so much rather go over by a week or two, than under by a month or 2. We shall see :)
