Twenty Four Weeks

Energizer baby
Jumping and diving, rolling and kicking—your little one is having a great time training for the Baby Olympics. Just as you settle in for a good night's sleep, he starts his workout. Does it seem as if he's moving more than ever? He is: Babies are most active between 24 and 28 weeks. After that, there won't be enough room for him to perform the acrobatics he's so adept at now.

Thin skinned
If your baby could look down at his chest, he'd get his first anatomy lesson. Because his skin is still thin and transparent, it's possible to see the blood vessels, bones, and organs beneath it. His skin will continue to thicken as the months pass, until it's opaque like yours.

Eye spy
Even though your baby's eyes are still fused shut, all the parts of his eyes are present, including the retina, which completes its development over the next month. The iris, the colored part of the eye, still doesn't have any pigmentation. Your little one's eye color will fill in over the next few months, though their final shade won't be settled until after he's born.

Measuring up
Your little gymnast weighs up to 1.3 pounds this week and measures 10 to 11 inches.

Dawn’s Notes:
We went to the hospital this week because I had a dizzy spell that lasted several hours. (Later learned that it was caused by insufficient salt in my diet)

The nurse connected us to a fetal monitor, and Squirt didn’t like it at all! Chris and I had fun listening to him kick the monitor all night long. He must not have liked it, because he was very persistent and his kicking was not random. Just one more good reason not to wear the monitor during labor!

Boy Scout Motto: Be Prepared

I’m so excited about our Bradley Method classes, that I’m finally finding time to write in my blog again!

Chris and I attended our first Bradley class last night. We originally signed-up for a 12-week series of classes that was scheduled to start on November 1. We weren’t so thrilled that the only class available before our due date is 30 miles away from home, but we were thrilled to find a class that started AND ended before our due date. Imagine my devastation when we received a call from our instructor last week telling us that the class series was cancelled! Evidently, 4 of the 5 couples decided not to take the class at the last minute. AGH!!! The agony! I was so discouraged and wondered if we could ever achieve an un-medicated birth without this training and preparation. I was feeling very blue.

Our instructor realized that she was our only option, so she offered to let us join her other class that is currently in session. We’ve already missed 5 of the 12 classes, but we figured it was better than nothing. Our instructor also offered to meet with us alone to review what we missed in the previous classes. I was relieved to learn that we’ve mostly missed Nutrition, Exercise, and Relaxation. I’m really anxious to review the relaxation techniques (can you tell that I need it?), but I think the nutrition and exercise will be a piece of cake. I’m so relieved that we were able to find a class!

After attending our first class, it even seems that Chris might be convinced that we could do this. I know he only agreed to take the classes because he would do ANYTHING to make me happy, but now he seems to be more supportive of the idea and seems to better understand my motivations. It means the world to me to have his genuine support, so I am overjoyed. I feel like I could do ANYTHING as long as I had his encouragement.

We’ve also decided to hire a doula to help us both through labor. I think this will take some pressure off of Chris by giving someone else the responsibility to be an advocate for us at the hospital. I want him to be free to cope with and enjoy the emotional aspects of labor and delivery, and let someone else worry about arguing with the doctors and nurses.

I feel so much more confident about our ability to labor and birth that I’m actually excited and can’t wait to meet our baby!

Name Game

Since we won’t learn the baby’s gender until birth, we have been calling the kid “Baby” all these months. I found it hard to connect with the baby without having a name for him/her, so we began the hunt for a suitable nickname.

I liked Pumpkin.

Chris thought that was a sissy name.

I liked Monkey.

Erica loves monkeys, so she wanted that nickname for herself.

Kayla liked Peanut, but that was her nickname as a baby, so we considered that name as already taken.

I suggested Sugar Dumpling just to aggravate Chris, but it was too long to say repeatedly.

Erica finally suggested the name that stuck:

SQUIRT

The baby has been named after the baby turtle in Finding Nemo.