24 Weeks: Viability

I took my weekly photo a day early this week, as I was dressed nicely today. There's very little chance that I'll be out of gym shorts tomorrow. :)

So, we've made it to week 24! It's a bit milestone in all of the pregnancy books because it's considered the week of viability. In other words, if baby was (GOD FORBID) born now, he or she would at least have a chance at survival. Obviously, we want our little one to stay in there and continue to grow for many more weeks, but 24 weeks still feels nice to reach.

This weekend has been a weekend of preparing for baby. Yesterday morning, we went to Babies 'R' Us to get a shower gift for my cousin, but while we were there, we also found a glider/ottoman set that we liked so we ordered it. We hadn't planned on doing that yet, but once we decided on it, we figured, why not? We're trying to knock off the big baby purchases early! Then, we rode over to Buy Buy Baby to order the baby's car seat. It's actually a gift from my mom, but since we were going to be out there, she asked if we would mind stopping by the store to order it ourselves. So that'll be arriving at our house soon, too.

When we got home, we cleaned out our big walk-in closet in our bedroom. We sorted out old clothes, reorganized everything we're keeping, and then sifted through all of the other things we store in there to make as much room as possible to move things in from the den closet. (The den will become the nursery.)

Today, we cleaned out the den closet, and got rid of a bunch more things. We also went through these two big storage bins we have underneath our bed to clear more space in those, too. We're in pretty good shape! We're hoping to get new carpet installed throughout our house sometime within the next several weeks, so we're waiting to officially clear out the den until we're preparing for the new carpet. After that, we'll officially start the nursery!

We have our 24 week appointment on Thursday this week. We are starting to feel the crunch about signing up for classes, finding a pediatrician, etc. so we plan to buckle down and figure out all of that stuff with our doctor during this appointment. The baby's due date still seems so far off in so many ways, but on the other hand, we know it'll be here in the blink of an eye.

Baby is about the length of an ear of corn now, and weighs over a pound. This week is apparently pretty big in terms of lung development (I'm guessing that is part of the whole "viability" milestone), his or her brain is growing at a rapid rate, and taste buds continue to form.

I've been feeling lots of movement this week. I don't think it will ever get old--I continue to be amazed by the kicks and the way my belly moves right along with him/her. I've also been getting the kicks to the bladder the last couple of weeks. The only reason I know he/she is kicking my bladder is because I'll suddenly get this OHMYGODIHAVETOPEE feeling, but it's only for a split second. Thanks, baby! I love lying in bed with Michael at night and just feeling the baby do its thing in there. Michael's been able to feel it pretty frequently these days, too. *LOVE*

At work last week, a random coworker (whom I had not told I'm pregnant) asked me when I'm due when I ran into her in the mailroom. I wasn't sure whether to count that as my first stranger comment or not--it's possible she got wind of my pregnancy through the grapevine. For that reason, I'm not REALLY counting it. I'm still waiting for the day I get a comment at the grocery store or something! What the heck, people must just think I'm loading up on the ice cream these days. C'MON, STRANGERS! Get with the program. :)