The Squirt Show

Erica’s favorite new hobby is feeling Squirt kick my belly.

She felt it for the first time last week. It must have been an amazing experience for her because her face lit up like a Christmas Tree.

Last night, Erica and I were lying on my bed studying her spelling words. She took a break to let Squirt kick her. Squirt obliged a couple of times and she was very excited.

I started to tell Erica that Chris had SEEN Squirt kick me just the day before. We were lying in bed and my belly bounced. I didn’t get to see it, but Daddy did.

Just as I was telling her the story, Squirt kicked me again and we both SAW it!

The show continued as Squirt kicked me several more times.

We all have a new hobby now.

Twenty Five Weeks

What Baby is Doing:

In the round
"My body fills out a little every day." Your baby measures 12 to 13 inches and weighs about 1.5 pounds. Her skin is still thin, wrinkled, and pale, but she gets a bit plumper every day, thanks to the fat and muscle she's continually adding. Right now tiny blood vessels called capillaries are starting to develop below your little one's skin, and these will give it a pink hue. And she's still swallowing amniotic fluid. Too bad it doesn't come in different flavors!

Brain gain
The brain's cortex is developing into layers. Most of the action is still controlled by other brain areas that developed much earlier. The human cerebral cortex is the most elaborate brain structure in all the animal kingdom, giving us the ability to think, plan, and feel in complex ways.

What Mom is Doing:

Soccer mom
Does it seem as if your organs are starting to get squished? No wonder—your uterus is now about the size of a soccer ball. It measures from your pubic bone upward to a point that's halfway between your belly button and your sternum (the bone where your ribs come together), about 25 centimeters in diameter.

Diabetes check
It's time for your glucose screening test, a procedure that's performed between 24 and 28 weeks. This test looks for signs of gestational diabetes, a high-blood-sugar condition that usually goes away after birth. It affects 2 to 5 percent of pregnant women. If earlier tests detected sugar in your urine, or if you have a history of this problem, you may have been checked for gestational diabetes already.

The glucose screen is a simple test. First, you drink a sugary solution. A short time later, your provider or a lab technician draws your blood and tests its sugar level. If your blood sugar is too high, a more lengthy blood glucose test is performed to determine whether you have gestational diabetes. Treatment involves a special diet and, in a few cases, medication.

You go, girl
The need to urinate constantly may be one of pregnancy's most annoying challenges. As soon as you come back from the bathroom and get settled, you have to go again! As inconvenient as it may be sometimes, be sure that you empty your bladder as soon as you feel the need. Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are very common during pregnancy, and they may be caused or aggravated by not urinating promptly or completely.

Dawn's Notes:

Ditto. My belly is huge because I am hosting Squirt's own personal disco party in there.

I tinkle all the time. I wonder if my boss realizes how much she pays me every day to pee?

We get to take our glucose test sometime in the next two weeks. Yummy.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary

Chris and I went to Niagara Falls last weekend to celebrate our seventh wedding anniversary on November 13.

Some highlights that are appropriate for this blog:

(there are some things that no one else needs to know about)

*The drive that usually takes 3 hours took 4 hours on the way there and 4 ½ hours on the way home. Not to say that Squirt is to blame, but I’ve never needed to make so many rest stops on a roadtrip before…I’ll let you draw your own conclusion about why it took so long.

*Squirt is our lucky charm. We went to the casino and won enough money on nickel slots that our vacation was completely free. I have NEVER won money at the casino before. We still need to check the lottery tickets that we bought with Squirt while we were in Canada…

*We stayed in a beautiful hotel room in a great location and enjoyed a spectacular view, but it was surprisingly cheap. We were very scared when we saw the hotel lobby, parking garage, and elevator, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that our room had been remodeled only two years ago and everything was spotlessly clean. The hotel was right next to the Skylon Tower and across the street from the new casino, and the parking was free! We’ll be returning to that hotel with the kids sometime, so Squirt will actually be able to see it someday!

*Squirt does not like Chinese food or Indian food. Great learning experience for me.

*We visited the Niagara Parks greenhouse again, just like we did for our honeymoon, and we spent at least two hours there taking pictures.

*There was a holiday light display in the Niagara Parks.

*I was incredibly happy just to be alone with Chris and the weekend was over too quickly.