24 Weeks Pregnant....

Today marks 24 weeks pregnant!! Yippee!  Like I have said numerous times before, I can't believe how fast time is flying by.  We still have A LOT to do!  I am not in the "panic" mode yet, but I can see how the due date could sneak up on us so I need to make a list and get organized.  

Last night my mom said to me, "Is his room ready for the crib and changing table to be delivered?"  I said, "oh heck no". She said, "You better get moving....it's March!" I think we have made a significant dent in the cleaning of Jacob's room, but we still have a long way to go, as you can see from the pictures I took this week:

In other baby news this week, I went to my regular monthly pre-natal appointment yesterday afternoon.  I saw Dr. Owens, who I had never seen before.  I was very pleased with her as she was super friendly, enthusiastic, talkative, and very informative. She made me feel good about how this pregnancy is progressing and she seemed to generally care how I was feeling and how our baby was doing.

My biggest fear about going to this particular appointment (and probably every one from here on out) was the weigh in.  As I have mentioned before, my appetite has significantly increased and I find myself eating a lot more than I did a few months ago.  I was really scared that the nurse was going to say that I had gained more than the recommended amount.  The funny thing is that when I first got on the scale in the examining room, the weight that showed up on it was definitely wrong!  It was showing that I was down like 10 lbs from where I was a month ago and I knew that just couldn't be right.  When I mentioned it to the nurse, she said that they had been having problems with that particular scale so we moved to a different room and (whether good or not), this scale was much more accurate.  The good news is that I have only gained 2 lbs in the last month and 9.5 lbs total!!  YAY!!  I am right on track of where I should be at this point in my journey and Dr. Owens was very pleased.  Now if I can just stay on track with my eating and get a little more (or any! haha) exercise, I will be good to go.  I know these last 3 months are going to be the most weight gain, so I am trying not to worry too much about the weight, but I don't want to end up gaining so much that I am miserable either.

Another notable thing from the appointment is that my blood pressure is back down to "normal" at 110/80.  I personally think that last month's rise was a fluke thing and hopefully I won't have to deal with high blood pressure issues as I progress.

Dr. Owens did have a hard time finding Jacob's heartbeat.  It probably only took her about 30-45 seconds to find it, but to me it seemed like forever!!  Once she did find it, I said, "OK, that scared me" and she said "that happens a lot, but it still is scary".  I must admit I do like to hear the doctors and nurses say things like "that happens a lot" just so I know that what I am experiencing is not unusual, but it still scares me when things like that happen!!  His heartbeat was a strong 154 beats per minute (a little higher than usual, but still within the normal range).

Dr. Owens also (kindly) informed me that I will start experiencing some not-so-nice side effects soon such as leg cramps at night, heartburn (which I have already been experiencing daily!), and back ache.  Woohoo - can't wait! haha

Well, since this post is becoming kinda long, I guess that is all for now.  I did go back to the Physical Therapist on Wednesday so I will post again about that.  We have a busy weekend planned - we are in Richmond today and will be in DC tomorrow - so I will try and post more on Sunday when we return home.  I hope everyone has a great weekend.