Baby Cheese Pregnancy: 24 Weeks

Yesterday marked 24 weeks of being pregnant with Baby Cheese. I was excited to reach 24 weeks considering that it's a bit of a milestone because from now on if something should go wrong, and the baby is born early (not that it will happen, but just saying), then the medical team will do everything they can to save the baby.  Up until this point the chance of survival outside the womb was not great enough.  For some reason, this milestone is a relief to me, even though I have no desire to have the baby any earlier than when the doc schedules my c-section.  Babies need to grow and develop the way nature intended, if possible.

My pregnancy book says the baby gained at least 4 ounces this last week.  I believe it.  Once again, I'm having round ligament pain, which is always an indication to me that the kid has outgrown his space, and is working on expanding it.  Last night I glanced in the mirror and got a good sideways view of my growing belly, and said to Nate, "Holy cow, I am getting so big.  Seriously, how can I get any bigger?  I have 3-1/2 months left!"  He was like, "Yeah, I know.  I'm wondering the same thing.  You're getting to that, 'Oh, honey' stage."  That was not consoling.

I'm almost in entirely new territory as far as the weight scale.  Since I started this pregnancy 14 lbs heavier than I was when I got pregnant with Cooper, putting me in the "overweight" category (ugh) my goal has been to only gain 20 lbs my entire pregnancy.  I feel I've been doing ok with this goal, considering I'm at 24 weeks and have only gained 10 lbs.  That gives me another 8 lbs. or so for the baby to get to his probable 9 lb weight, and a few pounds of pregnancy whatnot to add to it--totally doable, I think.  But I'm not happy about seeing the scale climb.  With a goal of 20 lbs total gained, that will put me at 10 lbs over what I was at the end of my pregnancy with Cooper, which means 10 digits higher on the scale than I've ever been before. I have 2 more lbs to go, and I'll be at that heaviest point, and will still have another 8 to go.  Sheesh.  I probably shouldn't stress or be bothered by it so much, but I am because I want myself and my baby to be healthy, and I want to be able to lose all this baby weight and then some before I ever have another one, or more like within a year of having this child.  I'm disappointed in myself for being overweight to begin this pregnancy, but then again, at least I'd lost 10 lbs last year before getting pregnant, so it's a lot better than it could have been.  This is all more of a personal vent for me about this than anything else.  It's just something that's been weighing heavy on my mind (no pun intended).

Aside from the typical pregnancy discomforts and these little stresses, things are great.   Last night Cooper was playing with a cup and I put it upside down on his head and called it a hat.  He knocked it off, so I picked it up and placed it on my belly (I was laying down), and said, "Look Coop, Cheese is wearing your hat."  Cooper thought that was hilarious and started to laugh.  Then I said, "Cheese thinks it's funny too, and wiggled my belly so that the hat wiggled and bobbed.  Coop giggled all the more.

Then last night as Cooper and I snuggled on the couch before bedtime, I was laying kinda half on my back half on my side, a position which is not very comfortable right now without belly support because the baby shifts to whatever side is down.  So I could really feel him on my left side, the side closest to Cooper.  I told him where the baby was, and he felt my belly on the right side where there was "no" baby, and then again on the left side where most of the baby's weight was at the moment.  He was excited to feel the baby, and then I said, "I think he just wanted to snuggle with you too."  To that Coop leaned down and kissed my belly and said, "I love you, Cheese."  Then Cooper proceeded to tell me some of the things he is going to teach his brother to do when he gets big, like ride his bike, and kick balls, and such.  I love that these brothers are already developing a bond.

One other noteworthy humorous moment was the other night during family prayer, Nathan was giving the prayer, and he was asking for the baby to continue to grow healthy.  But he didn't say "the baby," he said "Baby Cheese."  We all started giggling, and Nate quickly ended the prayer.  He said he didn't mean to do that, and felt it was probably disrespectful to the Lord, but that it just came naturally because that is what we call this child.  I told him God probably understands. :)  This poor kid, he's probably going to be called "Cheese" by our family for his entire life.