Week 24

Because my due date got moved up 3 days (to the Fourth of July), my weekly updates have been moved from Saturdays to Thursdays now…

Your Baby this Week: Your baby's growing steadily, gaining about a quarter of a pound since last week, when she was just over a pound. Since she's almost a foot long, that makes for a pretty lean figure, but her body is filling out proportionally. Your baby's skin is thin, translucent, and wrinkled, her brain is growing rapidly, and her taste buds may be working now. Her lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" and cells that produce surfactant, a substance that helps the air sacs inflate easily.

Your baby can hear more and more now, and you may even notice her startle at loud, sudden noises. But she's probably getting used to the regular noises she hears around the house, such as your dog barking or the roar of a vacuum cleaner. Many new parents are surprised by how unfazed their newborns seem by sounds like these, but if you think about it, they've had months to get accustomed to them.

Your Body This Week:The top of your uterus is now an inch or so above your belly button, which means it's about the size of a soccer ball. With the skin on your abdomen and breasts stretching, you may feel a little itchy now and then. If your skin is dry, keeping it well moisturized may help. You may also find that your eyes are sensitive to light and feel gritty and dry. This is a perfectly normal pregnancy symptom known as dry eye. To ease your discomfort, use an artificial tears solution to add moisture. Are your shoes feeling a little tight? Swelling is partly responsible, but pregnancy hormones are loosening the ligaments all over your body, causing your foot bones to spread apart.

My Take: I added the “Your Body” part because it’s more telling of my life this week than the baby part. I have gone up about ½ size in my shoes and have switched from the ones that fit fine in my rack to the ones that used to need thicker socks to wear comfortably. I'm also suffering from bad dry eye at night, even with the humidifier. This wouldn’t be noticeable except for the past week and a half I’ve been getting up at least 2X/night to use the bathroom, take my thyroid pill, pull myself out of a vivid dream, etc., and when I wake up my eyes are painful they’re so dry.

Though he’s probably going to groan that I'm publicly stating this, I made Jim talk to Nicole over the phone yesterday. He said (or claims he said): “Nicole, your mom wants you to move around but your dad doesn’t really care.” I am still all tickled by this. Cheese, I know!