24 Weeks :)

How Far Along: 24 Weeks! Ava is almost a foot long and about the size of an ear of corn. She's growing quickly and weighs around 1 1/2 pounds.

Weight Gain/Loss: +2.5 pounds this week. I suppose my minimal weight gain last week was made up for this week! It probably also didn't help that I ate everything in sight while I was on vacation...you can't blame me! NOTE: I also just found out that my pre-pregnancy weight was actually off on my WTE weight tracker so I've gained less than I thought I had. YAY! That means I'm still on track in terms of recommended weight gain. I've gained roughly 18.3 pounds total.

I've taken it upon myself to compare my measurements now all over my body. I measured abdomen, waist, hips, thighs, bust, and arms. For the purpose of keeping this short (and some parts of my private) I will let you in on the inches gained in my abdomen and hips only. In my abdomen alone I've gained 4.5 inches. In my hips I've gained 2 inches (I wonder why....not). I suppose just for this post I can also mentioned that I've gained 3.25 inches in my chest so far! WOOHOO!

Symptoms:

• Back Pain
• Nausea
• Dizziness
• Round Ligament Pain
• Swelling

Cravings:

• Various fruit juices

Aversions:

• Same crap, different week

Maternity Clothes:

• Yes...and this won't be changing...

Movement:

• Ava has been kicking SO SO much this week! We can actually see her kicking from the outside now. My stomach goes up and moves around. Its crazy. We even saw her literally roll over. One side of my stomach went up and then there was a motion across and up on the other side. It was really neat! Also, she's been kicking at night and making it hard for me to sleep because I feel like an alien is trying to get out! Its a weird feeling, but its also such a great feeling. :)

Gender:

• Girl :)

Belly Button In or Out:

• This was not the lucky week of belly button popping out...lol. Still very much in!

Thoughts:

• We went to our first baby class this week! It wasn't a typical birthing class or newborn care class, etc. It was a briefing on the military base called Bundles for Babies. We had 4 speakers and each one was very interesting. We watched some powerpoints and a video and were given several pamphlets/calendars along the "what to expect" side of things. We learned how to swaddle the baby (very interesting actually!) and calm a baby from crying. We also learned about budgeting for the baby and what we really need right now and what can wait as well as all the information we needed about enrolling the baby in DEERS/Tricare Prime once she's born. Probably my favorite part of the whole thing though was seeing that prenatal and postnatal exercise classes are held on base for free and that massages are super cheap for us on base too! All in all it was a great learning experience for me. Our next baby class is actually a newborn care class and is on Tuesday, the 13th. Can't wait! Oh, and I should also mention quickly that I can't see my feet anymore if I'm standing straight up and looking down...that's quite the exciting milestone if you ask me.