26 weeks!

I'm a little late with this week's update, due to being at my parents for the weekend. So here we go...

Little JellyBaby scared me last week! On Thursday, my alarm went at 6:40am as per usual, baby was very busy unti I got up at 7:10am as per usual! Then around 2pm at work, it suddenly dawned on me that i hadn't felt JellyBaby all day The panic set in! I gave things another hour, and at 3pm I decided it was time to phone the doctors for advice - the docs office was closed!! By 4pm panic was really bad, and just as I was about to phone the hospital, I got a HUGE kick! Such a mischevious baby!! just glad all was well.

Throughout Thursday, aside from no movement, my IBS was quite bad again. Also I kept feeling regular intervals of what I can only describe as muscle twitchy type movements. When the episodes occurred, the movements were approx 2 seconds apart and lastine for around 2 minutes. I assumed it was a muscle, until someone suggested it was baby having hiccups How sweet!!!

Movement has returned to normal. And baby is very very active when I snuggle down in bed at night, ready for sleep. Not kicks but full movements! It's like my entire tummy morphs around!! I still find it difficult to comprehend this is a little person making all these movements.

And for JellyBaby:

At long last, your little swimmer can see the womb! Your miracle’s little eyelids have finally separated (they were fused closed previously) and they’re probably having their first moments of sight as you read this (or maybe it already happened while you were brushing your teeth or watching Oprah or something). In addition to seeing their little studio in your belly, they’ve recently acquired the ability to say “yes” and “no” in rudimentary sign language as they can now move their head back and forth. This is also the time where your little super star’s head hair is starting to grow! A cute little cowlick or two may be springing into position right now, getting ready for years of cute-but-stubborn bed-head. Also, their toenails have grown in and you little raisin continues to slowly pile up fat beneath their still-loose skin. Most importantly, brain tissue and neurons are all developing at a rapid pace, increasing their (genius-level?) brain activity and will continue to function at accelerated levels for the first seven to eight years of childhood!

My little munchkin can open his/her eyes!!!

25 weeks!

So, who said they had their IBS under control via diet?? Oh wait, that was me... nuh uh!! We're not having such a great time of it this week. I've been eating bran flakes and activia yogurt as mentioned before, but it appears to have stopped working. Is it possible the body gets used to these things and then reverts?!

Today I have made Banana & Apricot Bread which contains lots of bran fibre as well, so... a cake of sorts AND healthy! What a fabulous thing!! Only thing is, I couldn't find something called "high fibre bran" so have used Kelloggs All Bran cereal... gawd knows what it will turn out like! I guess I'll find out once it has cooked. It currently has 30 minutes of cooking time left. Very easy to make though.

Heartburn was terrible on Tuesday, I had a cheese and tomato sandwich at lunch and have made the link between tomatoes and terrible heartburn!! So those will be avoided from now until this little one is born!

I'm feeling a whole lot of movement now, baby is very very busy! I could make out a "hard" part on the left side of my lower tum last night - I'm guessing it was a butt (see position of baby below). I've been trying to see if I can feel/identify limbs but it's impossible lol I guess either, it's too eary, or you have to know what you're looking for!!

So... JellyBean time...

Your little grower’s physical proportions are evening out at this point and most of their remaining development will largely be weight gain and lots and lots of nervous system development. The good news is: if your child is born premature now they’ll be more likely to survive without too much trauma as their lungs began to produce “surfactant” last week, which means their tiny respiratory system is getting stronger with each passing day. Yes, now’s a good time for a minor sigh of relief and a quick pat on the back. All that hard work and conscientious living is really getting your child prepared for a healthy delivery. Keep up the fabulous work mama! This week they’ll be scootching slowly out of the old breech position and start rotating (already!) into a better position for exit during their birth. Their head and feet are slowly rotating so that the head is pointed down towards the birth canal. Time is short (or really long, depending on who you ask)—just (still!) 14 weeks left before you can go back to being a single-resident human.

3 weeks to go until the 3rd trimester... how scary!

24 weeks!

It only seems like yesterday that I wrote about 23 weeks This week felt like it started slowly then flew in - typical of when you are on holidays from work, right?! I can't believe we are back tmor, even though at the same time it seems like weeks since we finished up!

The past 3 nights my heartburn has been quite bad - last night wasn't too bad, but the 2 nights before I felt like I was going to throw up with it. All in the name of baby-growing though! Baby is kicking well now and I'm feeling more movements higher up in my tum rather than just lower down. Not constant though in the upper area yet.

JellyBaby update:

This is another big week for your magical growing baby! Just take a look at the checklist for this week: 1) ears: done; 2) fingernails: done; 3) (if you have a boy) testicles: taking their 3-4 day trip from the abdominal wall to the scrotum; and 4) lungs walls: secreting “surfactant”. What’s that? Well, surfactant is sort of what it sounds like: a surface-activated fat whose main purpose is to assist the your baby's little lungs during inflation (as in, filling with air, not getting more expensive). Just in case you’re curious, your submerged baby is still breathing in amniotic fluid, preparing and rehearsing the lungs an oxygen-filled life outside the womb. By the end of this week, your child will be weighing around 2 lbs and 14 inches long. Your cutie-patootie may even be a little more plump, but isn't anywhere near their full baby-fatted cute-self. Most of the “filling out” is coming up in that long awaited (and slightly dreaded?) third trimester. Woo-hoo! Get ready!

WOW!! 2lbs and 14 inches!! How does it fit in my tumtum!!!

At 6 months, we have an aubergine!

The baby's room is completely finished!!

On Wednesday, all baby's furniture was put together - it finally looks like a nursery - and feels so real!! I went to collect pram/car seat on Wed but they had "forgotten" to order my pram - in other words they sold mine and hadn't ordered one to replace it. So I took the car seat home on Wednesday and earlier today we had a phone call to say the pram was in
DH & I went to pick it up about 2 hours ago! I LOVE it!!! I've spent the past hour upstairs putting it into all the different positions! I hadn't intended on using the car seat much on the chassis... I'd prefer bubbs to be laying flat for spine/comfort reasons, just as well because it's rather heavy with the car seat on... add a baby to that and omgosh!!

I'm so happy with it though! DH even had a push about the baby's room My entire upstairs smells of "new" thing. I just adore the nursery, it's really turned into a cosy little room. Now all we need is someone to live in it... but not too early!

So that's how we spent our week's holidays from work! I intend on doing nothing for the entire weekend...

23 weeks!

So this week hasn't been too eventful. I'm pretty sure I've managed to get the IBS symptoms under control via my diet (YEY bran flakes!). So I'm pleased about that and loving being *regular* Baby is still kicking about in there, quiet through the day and active at night, which is normal. Today, I've felt kicks higher up, I don't usually feel anything above my belly button. So that's interesting!!

After my appointment yesterday and being told I was dehydrated, I'm a little concerned. In this weeks baby-gag.com update, the "about mum" section has this in it:

Keeping your fluid intake up is also good for your little resident swimmer as dehydration is frequently connected with premature birthing.

So, that's a little scary. It's 1pm almost, and I've had 2 cups of tea and a juice which is more than I'd usually have. Unfortunately, the downside is... PEEPEE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jellybaby update!

At this point you’ve pretty much adjusted to the fact you’ve got a moving little gymnast inside of you, but now they’re going to kick up the party a notch because they can hear and react to sounds from the outside world. Sounds from your alarm clock, a thunder roll, or that darned car honking at you across the intersection can actually jar their little ears enough to elicit a kick or violent bout of squirming. Of course this also means that their little ears are picking up the sounds of your voice and those near you. So go ahead, sing a lullaby to your little angel—if they start kicking, it’s likely they just want you to stop… or maybe it was a kick of approval? You decide. Your baby's tiny taste buds are still growing and their bones are continuing to ossify (harden), their tiny veins are visible through their translucent yet wrinkly skin. (Think of it this way: they’ve been swimming in the equivalent of a long hot bath for the past 23 weeks, so you can’t blame them for being a little prune-like.)

Today's preggy class and midwife appointment

Jellybean and I had a pregnancy class this morning. It was basically all about the aches and pains, how to avoid or how to self-help if you have them. I found it very interesting indeed. Some of the pains I have been getting but didn't link it with pregnancy alone.

The nurse told us all about pelvic pain, back pain, even tummy/rib pain which I wouldn't have expected to experience through pregnancy. Also talked about cramp and carpel tunnel syndrome (excuse spelling).

Then we went back to work for an hour (a whole hour ) and off to the midwife at 2:30. I had sugar and "key tones" in my urine which concerned me a little, but she said the sugar was from just having eaten lunch (I had a slice of caramel shortbread) and the key tones were due to dehydration.

I asked if I'd gained enough weight - my friend is 3 weeks ahead of me and has gained 2 stone... I've gained approx 6ish lbs. She said my bump and bubbs feel fine for where I'm at. Next visit is Nov 7th and she'll start measuring my bump for growth checks

YEY for a great day of appointments and not much work haha!!