25 Weeks

How far along? 25 weeks, 3 days

How big is baby? About the size of a head of cauliflower

Total weight gain: 14 pounds at my last appointment. I haven’t been keeping track on our scale at home.

Maternity clothes? Fully into maternity clothes.

I can remember thinking before I got pregnant, “Maternity pajamas? What a waste! I’ll just keep wearing my t-shirts.” Yes, well, I’d like to retract that mental statement. The t-shirts I wear to bed barely fit and the actual pajamas I have probably only have a few weeks left in them before they’re too small, too.

Stretch marks? No new ones this week.

Exercise? Nope.

Sleep: Just depends on the night, but still not great overall. Sleeping on my right side has definitely taken some getting used to. I did sleep really well in the king-size bed at the hotel this weekend – but not sure if that was due to extra space or sheer exhaustion.

Movement: He was really worrying me early last week because he’d be very active for a day, then I wouldn’t feel him hardly at all, then he’d be active again.

I guess little man was still figuring out what his arms and legs could do, because let’s take a look at a few of his new accomplishments this week:

• He’s learned the art of pummeling with both fists, not unlike a tiny boxer
• He’s figured out that if he stretches out his leg he can make a pretty cool karate chop movement (heaven help me when he locates my ribs doing that…)
• And…drumroll…he’s figured out that he can use his hands and his feet at the same time.

He is especially fond of the last accomplishment and his favorite time to practice it is at approximately 11 p.m. As you can imagine, mommy is quite proud of him, too, but would prefer he pick a different practice time…

I am very thankful he is moving more frequently, as I really was getting a bit worried. (First-time mommy fear I’m sure…)

Food cravings: My sweet tooth is starting to get a little sweeter, but that’s about it.

Food aversions: No real changes, though I’ve gotten more amenable to chicken. Thank goodness for that, as I’m pretty sure my husband is quite tired of ground beef dishes at this point!

Gender: It’s a BOY!!

Labor Signs: Nope.

Symptoms: I had another good week! I really, really hope the worst is behind me with the lightheadedness issues, but I don’t want to get too optimistic yet.

I haven’t noticed any other new symptoms this week, except for belly button continuing to inch outward.

What people are saying: With my brother’s wedding this weekend, I got a lot of comments from people! The most common were the obvious – “When are you due?” “How far along are you?” “Do you know the gender?” “Have you picked out a name?” “Have you started thinking about names?”

People were also saying things such as, “You’re all belly!” “You haven’t gained any weight except your belly!” “You don’t look pregnant from behind!” and “You look great!”

One of my favorite questions remains, “How are you feeling?” because, really, how are you going to answer that other than to say, “Pretty good overall, thanks for asking.” I know people ask out of genuine concern, but no one wants to hear a laundry list of pregnancy symptoms in reply!

And then you have the comments from the boys in my family, a.k.a. my dad and my two brothers. No one can top the comments I get from the three of them! Some gems from this weekend:

• "Are you sure you want a plate? I can get you a feeding trough instead.”
• “Careful! I don’t think that chair is reinforced!”
• ”Still haven’t laid off those cheeseburgers, huh?”
• “Hey, look, you’re butt’s growing right along with your belly.”

Sweet Moments: I had probably a good half dozen people at the wedding ask if they could feel my belly, mostly girls around my own age. It’s become such a taboo thing anymore, thanks to nosy strangers doing it without asking. I said yes each time I was asked and it was really sweet to see their faces light up at being able to feel a pregnant belly. I think he did kick a few of them and the, “Whoa that is so cool!” response was priceless.

Make room for baby: I received a beautiful gift from my grandma for the baby and I know it will get a lot of use!

I also went and looked at three more childcare options on Friday morning, bringing the total number of places I’ve checked out to eight. I absolutely hate the thought of him being in childcare as an infant, so this has been a tough process. It’s also been stressful because we are very particular about what we will and won’t consider, and all of the programs we are considering have waiting lists.

I’ve narrowed it down to three places I like and have put down a wait list deposit for each. Chances are decent that I’ll get into at least one of them, so fingers are crossed and prayers are being said. In particular, I really liked one of the places I looked at on Friday. It met absolutely every criteria I have and I left there thinking, “I would actually be ok leaving my baby here.” It was exactly what I was looking for. So I am praying extra hard that we’ll get a spot there and if anyone else would like to say a prayer that we get in I sure would appreciate it.

Miss Anything? Mike and my brother ordered mimosas for brunch yesterday…they looked mighty tasty!

Looking forward to: Picking out the baby’s room theme with my mom.

Worst/most embarrassing moment this week: Being overcome by the heat while walking to the wedding reception – see the wedding blog post for the full story!

Best moment this week: J.T. and Becky are married! It was such a fun weekend celebrating their marriage and seeing family and friends.