24 Weeks

How Far Along:  24 Weeks

Total Weight Gain: 12 pounds!!!

Maternity Clothes:  Definitely in need of more tops now- I seriously grew overnight and they are all tight now!

Stretch Marks:  They are beginning :(

Sleep:  I sleep pretty good in my little maternity pillow cocoon :)

Best Moment This Week: Just being with my husband- i love him so much!

Miss Anything: Being able to lay in whatever position I want and being able to get up and bend over without difficulty!

Movement: He is crazy active!!

Food Cravings:  Just hungry all the time!

Anything make you quesy or sick: The smell of smoke!!! Seriously, smoking is the most disgusting thing in the world.

Gender Predicition- ITS A BOY!

Labor Signs:  Nope!

Symptoms:  Hip and pelvic pain, emotional

Belly Button in or out: In

Wedding ring on or off:  On but its starting to get tighter...

Happy or Moody:  Happy!

Looking Forward to: Painting the nursery

Nursery Progress:  Got half of the furniture and a plan for decoration!!



Braxton is now the size of a cantelope!!! That just seems so big to me!!!  He is kicking and moving non stop and they are getting stronger and stronger.  His kicks will actually move my hand now and I can feel them on all sides- front, back, and my sides.  He is most active in the afternoon and right before I go to bed.  Luckily, he sleeps when I sleep at night!  He should be about 10.5-11.8 inches long now and weigh about 1.3 pounds!  His ears and fingernails are developed and his lungs are secreting Surfactant- surface activated fat that helps his lungs inflate. His brain is growing quickly and taste buds are continuing to develop!  My uterus has now grown to the size of a soccer ball (lovely!) and my belly is just growing away!! I really think I grew a ton over night.  All my maternity clothes fit perfectly one day and the next morning when I woke up they were now snug on me? crazy! Looks like I need to save up for another round of clothes now!

I am so confused by pregnancy math- it does not make any sense to me.  They say you are pregnant for 9 months and they say you are pregnant for 40 weeks.  Is it just me or does that not equal each other???  40 weeks would be 10 months.  So every time I try to take my weeks and say how many months I am, it never works out!  So for 24 weeks, my math would say that is the last week of month 6 and the last week of then 2nd trimester (1st trimester was 12 weeks, so wouldn't the 2nd be 12 weeks too?), but you don't enter the 3rd trimester until 28 weeks and I have no clue what month I'm "technically" in.....

The bargains continued this week!!!  Because my mom will be having Braxton so much we are setting up a mini nursery in her home, so its kind of like we are having twins because we are having to get 2 of everything! Thankfully, Craigslist has pulled through for us!  We found a couple selling a pack and play with all the parts and bassinet and changing table included in EXCELLENT condition for only $40! Score!!!!  So we got that for my mom and then Brians sister gave us a pack and play along with some other baby stuff we needed.

I also found another amazing clothes deal that was just too good to be true!  There was a family with 4 boys-all who had been born in december that was moving and she was selling all their clothes.   There was a HUGE tub and I could have picked out $1 per outfit or taken the whole thing for $50- of course I took Brian and my mom with me to help- and as Brian saw me falling in love with each outfit and saw how great of condition they were in, he ended up getting the whole tub for me :)  When we got home and looked through it there were over 80 outfits ranging from 0-3 months up to 12 months, blankets, shoes, hats- and there were even 2 OSU outfits in there!!!!  We got a steal on this! and some of them still had tags on them!!!!

We stopped by 1 more place to look at some clothes- little did we know the lady smoked (a question I have now learned to ask)- The smell of the smoke on her made me so sick, I threw up the second I got home.  Smoking has to be the most disgusting habit in the world, and I dont understand how people cant stand it, let alone think it is okay to do around pregnant women, babies, or kids! UGH!!!

I have been keeping a spreadsheet of all our bargains and how much we are spending and saving and its just been amazing at how God has blesssed us and blessed our budget stretching our little bit of money we have to make sure we get things for Braxton. There is no other way to describe it besides a miracle from God.  He has taken care of little Braxton in every single way! God is good!

I had my monthly doctors appointment this week- it went great! Braxton was super active during the whole appt and had a heart beat of 149 with some spikes into the 150's!  I have finally reached the milestone where he could survive outside the womb now!  I almost cried when Dr. Hall told me that- we went from a 10% chance of survival to having a healthy baby that would survive in the world- just amazing to me.  I asked her about my immense pelvic pain- I described the pain as my bone just shattering- as sure enough my feeling was right on the money.  My pelvic bone is actually breaking! Yikes!  So I have to get a harness to wear to get that weight off my bones and she said to start praying he moves up and out, he is just so low.  Ive started moving him myself and that has helped- he doesnt like it at all, but he stays where I put him which is a good thing!  I asked her about the shots the pediatrician said I needed- when I first posted on Facebook about having to get the flu shot I got a lot of responses from women saying they didnt do it and it was optional- however Dr. Hall did not agree.  She is on the same page with the pediatrician saying that everyone that will around Braxton MUST have the flu shot and the whooping cough at least 2 weeks before he gets here and that if they dont, they dont need to be around our baby.  Well that settles it for me- I have full trust in my doctor so we put all our family on notice and me and Brian have talked and are on the same page about enforcing this completely. 

Saturday was a very fun day for us! Brian had his company picnic at the zoo so we went out there and walked around for little bit (it was super hot so we didnt do much) and we went to the picnic and then decided to go run some errands.  He had seen a shirt at TJ Max for like $3 he really wanted, so we went to go get it-  and while we were there we stumbed across one of the best bargains yet!!! There was a recliner that was originally $600 and they had marked down to $199- it was perfect, it is smaller than the huge recliners but still comfortable to sit in and SO much better than a glider! Neither one of us wanted a glider, but a recliner just wasnt in our budget- but this was perfect! And it was only $20 more dollars than the glider we were going to have to get!  Brian found the perfect deal! So we snatched it up and brought it home!  We love love love it!!! I cannot wait for us to be rocking Braxton in it :)

We had my mom come over that night and cooked her dinner so she could just relax and spend some time with us and I ended up finding (on craigslist of course!) the EXACT changing table we were going to buy- only it was cheaper and we wouldnt have to put it together! So after dinner we loaded the family up and went and got it!  It was in excellent condition! So glad I held off on buying it from the store- I was hoping to find something cheaper and we did!

I had been looking for maternity harnesses since I knew I needed one- and I was so lost-  they were so many ranging from like $40-100 and I just didnt want to pay that much for something that I didnt even know if it would work.  So right before we headed out for the changing table, I checked online one more time and they had just posted one in the original box for only $10 and it was close to where we were already headed! Whooo hoooo!!

Sunday was our day to celebrate my moms birthday!!! We wanted to do something fun and active so we planned a lunch at Dave & Busters with 2 of her close friends.  We had so much fun- we were laughing and smiling and talking the entire time- it truly was so fun and I loved seeing my mom so happy and relaxed and carefree.   We ended up spending our tickets we earned to get Braxton a soccer ball and football and then gave our extra tickets to a kid- he got the biggest smile ever when we did that, such a cool moment.

We were sooo excited to give my mom her birthday present- we couldn't wait for her actual birthday.  It wasn't much, but we put so much thought into all of it- and she loved it!! We went with the grandma theme and gave her a baby bag that had a diaper mat, diaper hanger, grandma bib, book of grandparent traditions to do with your grandkids, a water bottle sprayer, and a garage door opener (so it was easier on her to hold Braxton and get in and out of our house)- I think she loved it :)

That night we had my grandparents over to do a dinner at our house for her birthday- but...it was cut short when Brian noticed a rash on my back. It wasn't a typical rash- it was black and blue with distinct circles going from shoulder to shoulder- it looked like bruising from internal bleeding.  We didn't really know to do or think at first- we tried to see if something had just rubbed off on me, but it wasn't coming off or fading with water and a washcloth.  After talking to a few of our mom friends we decided it would be best to get it checked out- better safe than sorry.

We went to the urgent care- the doctor and nurses were stumped- said they had never seen anything like this at all.  All they could really tell us is that we needed to see our OB right away.  While we had been at the urgent care the rash type thing started to spread down both arms- now I was really getting worried.  It looked awful.  So we ended up calling the on call doctor at Lakeside- I have had nothing but positive things to say about everything with Lakeside- but this doctor was not nice at all.  She told me it was just a rash and no different than if my husband had one.  I tried to explain to her it wasn't your typical rash- it looked like bruising and that the doctor told us we needed to see an OB right away and that it was spreading- her response: well, rashes do spread.  Ugh.  That doctor will not be touching me or my baby.  So we ended up going to bed and decided we would call my doctor first thing in the morning... To Be Continued.....