Update: 24 weeks

I stole this weekly questionnaire from my dear friend Katy, due with baby girl Khloe Margaret in January. I love reading hers, so I may start doing these on a weekly basis!

 

How big is baby? My weekly BabyCenter.com email tells me Baby Girl is 12.5 inches long and just over a pound (about a pound and a quarter). Still a scrawny little thing!

Weight gain/loss: Up eight pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm pretty happy with that number! I was shocked to learn how little I had gained at my doctor's appointment this morning, for several reasons: 1) I weighed less when I started this second pregnancy than I did with my first, so I thought I would gain weight a little faster. 2) I don't feel like I've been taking awesome care of myself. I have been working out regularly, but I end up eating meals on the road more often, and I've been eating more packaged meals at home, just because it's hard to find a solid chunk of time to make a healthy, fresh dinner every day. Ford is a demanding little dude and seems to get very upset when I'm cooking (??). I have wondered if a Learning Tower would help so he could at least see what I'm doing. But then again that seems like a really expensive stepping stool. 3) I just feel bigger in this pregnancy! Maybe it's mental, but I swear baby girl has popped out sooner and more obviously than Ford did. Maybe it's because she's so high, it's just more apparent?

Sleep: Decent! I've been battling the flu and a gnarly upper respiratory infection for the last week or so, which means I sometimes wake up coughing violently. Also Ford's night terrors have picked up again. :-/ But I can't blame any lack of sleep on the pregnancy, so that's certainly something to be grateful for.

Movement: She's just so busy! Ford was a wild man in the womb, and this little one is living up to her brother's legacy! I noticed the other day that I hadn't felt a kick for about an hour and got worried. Then I realized that an hour is no big deal, but I've just become accustomed to CONSTANT movement! This morning at the doctor's office she was making my shirt move with all her kicks.

Symptoms: Y'all. Ugh. LEG VEINS. OMG!!!!!! I knew this could happen, but I was hoping I was just gifted in the vascular department. But alas, I have two nasty looking veins on the backs of both of my knees. Big ones. I asked Dr. Norwood what I could do, and he told me I need to get compression stockings! Ahhhhh! He also said this was super common, and I insisted that I didn't have anything like this with my first pregnancy. He said it's a lot more common with second pregnancies and that it will get worse with every pregnancy after this one. Guess I've got to say goodbye to cute skirts for the next several years until my childbearing days are over. Then I'm getting total reconstructive surgery on my legs. Mark my words (kidding... sort of... but not really).

Belly button: So out. It's been an outtie since I was, I don't know, 15 weeks? Before I was even really showing. It popped way early with Ford too. With him I had to tape it down with masking tape so it wasn't a huge distraction through my clothes, and I'm close to that point with baby girl. I guess I have a shallow belly button! 

Food cravings: I don't know. What makes a craving a craving, anyway? Sometimes certain things sound good, but that's true whether I'm pregnant or not. I haven't had anything that makes me want to stop what I'm doing and procure said food item. Some foods I've been enjoying a lot lately are apples and peanut butter (I LOVE apples this time of year), roasted Brussels sprouts, oatmeal with raisins and honey, boiled eggs (I end up eating a lot to try to get up to the right amount of daily protein I need), avocado toast... I also was really excited to find the LAST pint of Ben & Jerry's Cannoli ice cream at Central Market! This is a limited batch that has been highly hyped but very hard to find. And it did not disappoint. SO GOOD!

Gender: Sweet Baby Girl!
What I miss? Randomly -- and maybe THIS should go under cravings -- but cider! Not like a big gallon of apple cider with cinnamon, but like the 4-5% alcohol kind served in a cold bottle! Kind of embarrassing that I miss an alcoholic beverage, but mmmm, I do. Just keeping it real.

What I'm looking forward to? Spending time with family over the holidays. Looks like we will be spending a good 10+ days in San Antonio/Boerne. I'll enjoy the slower, more leisurely pace, and the help with Ford! 

Big Brother: At almost 16 months, he's just the cutest hot mess I ever saw. From minute to minute he alternates between incessant whining and the biggest belly laughs. A toddler in every way! He has so much personality, saying TONS of words (including please and thank you, unprompted!), and loves running as fast as he can, especially if someone is "chasing" him. He's actually getting hard to keep up with when he's really running! Maybe I'm just getting slower (ha ha). He LOVES babies, often pointing them out while we run errands or read books ("Bay! Beeeee!"), but I don't think he understands that he is going to be a big brother.

I can't believe how quickly the weeks are flying by!