The point of viability!!

Wohoo!! We have reached the point of viability, which means if the baby has to be born early or if I go into preterm labor, starting this week, she can survive, with the odds going in her favor each week from here on out!

Today starts the 24th week. According to my baby journal, this also marks the start of the third trimester, but I am not considering myself there until May 21st, week 27. Getting close though! Tomorrow is our monthly ultrasound, which I am very excited for!!! Hopefully I will get more pictures of the baby. Brian and I will try to get some belly pics and post those as well, since it has been about 3 weeks and we are due for some updates.

I have been sewing like a crazy woman lately. Since I am not doing anything else for baby right now, this is my nesting. Mom got me a sewing machine for channukah, and I have really just started to use it. So far I have made a few blankets, a bunch of burp clothes, a few adorable hats, a sweater/jacket, a huge teddy bear that still needs to be finished (it is stuffed, it just needs to be closed up, I just have to buy better colored thread) and snuggly blanket thing that has a lambs head up top and is made of fleece. My sewing skills need some fine tuning, but I am pretty impressed figuring I haven't had a sewing class since 7th grade. Just like I can't cut straight to save my life, I can't sew that straight either, but I am working on it!

Amanda, my sister-in-law, sent me 3 huge boxes of baby Hayden's girl clothes, so I may never need to go shopping for a wardrobe! They are amazing!! And she sent me an awesome Kate Spade diaper bag!! I have been looking for a diaper bag I like, and haven't found anything remotely cute in a decent price range, so when I opened the box and saw it, and loved the design, I was beyond thrilled!!! Thanks Amanda and Hayden!

Ok, here is the update on little BellaReese, mommy's favorite jumping bean:

How your baby's growing:

Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. Her weight — a pound and a half — isn't much more than an average rutabaga or roughly the length of one of those recorders you played in elementary school music class or the length of a half gallon of milk!, but she's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn. She's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture.

Get ready for pat-a-cake! Baby's hands are now fully developed and she spends most of her awake time groping around in the darkness of your uterus. Brain and nerve endings are developed enough now so that your baby can feel the sensation of touch. That doesn't mean she can feel it when her father pokes your stomach, however, so tell him to knock it off. Other highlights include: Your baby's arms and legs have grown to almost the proportions they will be at birth, which is still sort of short. So don't be alarmed when your newborn's arms barely clear his waist. Baby's nostrils, which have been plugged up until now, clear out (like she's taken a super-dose of Sudafed) and she can practice breathing through the nose. The structures of your baby's spine are now made up of 150 joints, 33 rings and some 1,000 ligaments. Can you believe you're growing something that complicated inside of you? The capillaries, the teeniest blood vessels, are now forming in your baby's body, giving her formerly translucent skin a pink glow. The blood vessels in the lungs also develop this week. You'll see how well that worked out when your baby gives those lungs a workout while you're on line at the bank in a few months.

Your Body:

Pregnancy leg cramps are not your ordinary run-of-the-mill leg cramps. Nope, a pregnancy leg cramp will often have you leaping out of bed screaming at the top of your lungs (this happens all the time now, not only during the night...in the middle of sewing or lying on the couch...fun times). Leg cramps can be caused by a calcium deficiency, so be sure to get enough calcium. Believe it or not, there's calcium in almonds, fish, broccoli and tofu. While they come with the territory of pregnancy, there are ways to avoid leg cramps, like warm soaks and massages. Sometime between Weeks 24 and 28, you'll get your glucose screening test to check for gestational diabetes (we have ours on may 27th, when I will be 27.5 weeks along). You'll have to drink this really syrupy, sugary soda drink, wait an hour, and then have your blood sugar levels tested to see how your body handles the sugar rush.