25 Weeks!

How Far Along: 25 Weeks! Ava is about 13 1/2 inches long (crown to heel) and weighs just over 1 1/2 pounds.

Weight Gain/Loss: +0.7 pounds this week. Total weight gain = +19.0 pounds

• I've gained 5" in my abdomen total now (+0.5" from last week). I changed my mind about telling you how much I've gained in my hips. It really doesn't matter does it? Plus I measured it wrong last time. After working at Curves I measure things a certain way and I don't know where I measured it last week, but there's no way I lost an inch in my hips. I think I measured it further down. At Curves we measured the abdomen from the part that "leaves the room first" and the hips from which part "leaves the room last".

Symptoms:

• Back Pain (although now I have a muscle relaxant which I THINK is helping)
• Lots of fetal movement (including hiccups)
• Forgetfulness (I walk into a room and forget what I'm doing all the time
• Clumsiness (I drop everything it seems like)
• Round Ligament Pain
• Swelling (just a little bit)

Cravings:

• Various fruit juices
• Chocolate...

Aversions:

• Same crap, different week

Maternity Clothes:

• Yes...and this won't be changing...

Movement:

• Ava is doing a jig in my tummy I think. She likes to dance. Perhaps I'll train her to be a salsa dancer!! lol. My friend, Whitney, and I decided that would be a pretty cool thing to do. ;) You can see her movements from the outside and its getting more and more noticeable. The other night I had a dream that she was poking her finger up towards my belly and I moved my hand across it and felt it so I left a finger there and she grabbed onto it. (Obviously this isn't possible and would be pretty creepy, but at first I thought it was cool in my dream until she wouldn't let go and I got scared lol).

Gender:

• Girl :)

Belly Button In or Out:

• Still in. I have a feeling it may just stay there for at least another month. I'm secretly hoping it will pop out at some point though because I think it would be kind of cute.

Thoughts:

• We had another baby class Tuesday night. It was called "Newborn Care Class" and was held at the North Little Rock Baptist Health Medical Center (where I will be delivering my sweet baby in 3+ months). Did I just say 3+ months?! That seems like not that far away when you think about how much time has passed already! I've looked into it a little and a term baby is 37 weeks.....that's October 7th for me. That seems so early, but hopefully our baby is born sometime after that. I mean, if little Ava was born at 37 weeks then we'd have LESS than 3 months til the big birthday. Just an interesting little tidbit I was just realizing...
• Anyway, the newborn care class was great. I really liked the instructor. We got to change diapers on dolls. We got a girl! :) We watched a video and learned about car sear safety, sponge baths/tub baths, what to do if a baby is choking, a little about breastfeeding, etc etc. We took home a folder with a ton of information too. I found it all very helpful and informative. Yes, much of it I already knew based on the books I read, but I DID learn a few new things and it was nice to just reinforce some of the other things so that its all drilled into my head! I'll be a pro in no time! :)