24 Weeks

A little update on how the pregnancy has been progressing...



How far along: I'll be 24 weeks on Christmas Eve.  The cool thing about 24 weeks is that most doctors consider 24 weeks the beginning of viability.  I think the chance of survival of a baby born at 24 weeks is between 40-70%, and the chances significantly increase each week thereafter.  By 27 weeks, a baby has a >90% chance of survival. 

 

Symptoms: Not feeling as spry lately.  Some intermittent lower back/ hip pain.  I've been trying to sleep on my side which should relieve some of the pain, but I still wake up on my back and stomach a lot of the time.  My midwife said not too worry too much about sleeping positions at this point, and that my body would let me know when I need to adjust.

 

Weight gain: 4 pounds during the last four weeks and 10 pounds overall. 

 

I'm still exercising regularly, but have notched down the intensity of my workouts.  No more long runs.  I mostly keep to walking and doing the elliptical.  I also do one round of the strength machines and an hour of yoga each week.  I aim for an average of 30 minutes of cardio each day plus the weekly strength training.  I think it's helped keep my weight in check, my symptoms minimal, and my mental health/ emotions balanced.

 

Fetal Movement: Still consistent.  She likes to kick me every few hours.  One day this past week she kicked me all day long!  Not sure why she was so active that day.  She is still breech, so she usually kicks me really low (below my waist line).  One morning she had flipped over for a short period and I could feel her kicking me around my belly button.  It was kinda neat because you could actually feel it from the outside.  Jason wasn't patient enough to keep his hand there long enough to feel her, but I thought it was cool.

 

Prenatal care: I had my 24 week checkup last Friday (a few days early) and the midwife said everything looked perfect (weight, tummy measurements, baby's heartbeat).  We'll be starting childbirth education classes in January with a doula the midwives recommended.  At my 28 week checkup I have to have a Rhogam shot (since I have a negative blood type) and do the glucose screening to test for gestational diabetes.  Oh joy.

 

Nesting: Umm not too much other than making the pennant banner for the nursery.  Once we get past the holidays, we'll need to kick up our preparations into high gear.  I still would like to paint the baseboards in her room before I loose all my nimbleness.  We need to order the crib soon too.

 

Worries: Not many.  I'm starting to feel the time crunch, but I'm sure we'll get everything done that we need to.

 

Looking forward to: Just watching the pregnancy progress.  I feel like I've been breaking up the pregnancy into little milestones every few weeks.  It makes the 9 months a lot less daunting.  So far milestones have been: finding out we were expecting at 5 weeks, our first prenatal appointment at 9 weeks, finishing the first trimester at 13 weeks (and hearing the baby's heartbeat at that appointment), the half way mark and anatomy ultrasound at 20 weeks, and reaching viability at 24 weeks.  I still have the following milestones to look forward to: entering the third trimester at 27 weeks and reaching full term at 39 weeks.