Week 24!

I'm heading down for a family reunion tomorrow at my parents beach house so I probably won't have a chance to post my Week 24 post. I figured I'd do it now and not worry about it. Just remember: The baby won't officially grow from a mango to an ear of corn until morning. =)

My comments today are in Orange!


How your baby's growing:

Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at just over a pound. Since he's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), he cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but his body is filling out proportionally and he'll soon start to plump up. His brain is also growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. His skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.

Wow-- what a boring week of change! I have nothing fun to say about the baby's development this week. Maybe just -- Go skin! Eric's really hoping that the baby comes out with my skin and not his. I'm more olive toned I guess whereas he's just pasty white and I don't have sensitive skin but he does. Personally, I like his powder white tint and his need for Sunblock. I think it's cute. But Eric hates it so ..... I guess we're hoping for olive tones here!

How your life's changing:

In the past few weeks, the top of your uterus has risen above your belly button and is now about the size of a soccer ball. Nice.




Most women have a glucose screening test (also called a glucose challenge test or GCT) between now and 28 weeks. (Mine is on May 7th at 8:45am and it lasts about 1 hour. My friends all said it's pretty gross. You have to drink this super sugary liquid sludge and then they take blood. If you fail you have to go back and drink more sludge and take more blood but the 2nd test lasts 3 hours.) This test checks for gestational diabetes, a pregnancy-related high-blood-sugar condition. Untreated diabetes increases your risk of having a difficult vaginal delivery or needing a cesarean section because it causes your baby to grow too large (No thanks! I don't want a 13lb anything coming out of my vag!), especially in his upper body. It also raises your baby's odds for other complications like low blood sugar right after birth. A positive result on your GCT doesn't mean you have gestational diabetes, but it does mean that you'll need to take the glucose tolerance test (GTT) to find out for sure.

This "life changing" section was pretty lame this week so I figured I'd fill it in with some of my own research. Here's another way my life is changing. I can no longer bend over to pick something up with ease. Getting out of the bath is ridiculous. Also, when someone parks too close to my car I'm screwed. I can no longer suck in a deep breath and squeeze myself in to the drivers side. No. I now have to crawl in through the passenger side and wiggle, unladylike, in to the drivers side. This has happened to me twice now and I'll tell ya this-- the guy who parks that close to you is a jerk on any given day - but now that I am pregnant and having to crawl in to the passenger side and scoot my awkward body over the passenger seat and the center console -- he's been promoted to an asshole for sure!