Week 24 through Week 26

Man, my last post was already three weeks ago?  That's crazy!  Time is just flying by right now!  

I've been getting better sleep lately, and I really feel like I'm in the fun stage of being pregnant.  Baby kicks regularly, and I am constantly seeing my stomach move.  I made a comment to Carl letting him know that I wonder if Belle detects that there is another human in my belly.  He replied, "She probably does, but she doesn't know what to do to tell you she knows he's there."  I said "Well she could lay her head on my tummy or something... some dogs do that, I've heard."  A few minutes later, leaning back in bed, this was my view.  Precious Belle!  

 

He was kicking all around and I'm certain she has felt it... sometimes she will look at my stomach like "You might wanna get that checked out, ma..."

Week 24, during church, once we stopped singing and sat down, I felt baby moving a ton.  I looked down and my stomach was moving all over the place!  I gently nudged Carl and motioned for him to look at my stomach.  He watched for a couple seconds and asked, "What, you have the hiccups?"  No honey, I don't have the hiccups... that's our baby boy kicking me and jumping around!  I told Carl it was the baby and he was surprised how much movement there was!  His surprise brought on a fit of laughter from me, but since we were in church I was holding in my laughter as best I could.... which means I sat there bopping up and down (laughing silently and hysterically) and turning red faced.  And baby stopped kicking.  (I rocked him back to sleep, perhaps!)  The thought that my laughter rocked him back to sleep made me just laugh even harder!  Baby says, "I don't know what's going on out there, but keep bouncing me and I'm a happy camper momma!"  So sweet!

After church, we went to get Carl's hair cut.  The hair stylist asked him about his pregnant wife, which I took as a huge compliment because it means I actually look pregnant (and not chunky) to complete strangers!  (She phrased the question asking about the basketball under my shirt, haha!)

Week 25, we attended regular church services and celebrated our risen Savior.  We went out to lunch with our friends and then went back to their house to hang out for a few hours.  Here are the boys' Easter baskets that the bunny put together for them!  Each got some candy (Austin got a lot more, of course) and their basket was filled with a few other goodies.  Austin was in need of some new clothes, and I always thought it was fun unwrapping clothes growing up so I put a few new clothing items in his Easter basket.  I mean, the bunny put some clothes in his basket.  Whoops.  ;)  He got some new khaki shorts, two new t-shirts, and a couple pairs of boxers.  And his basket is actually a trash can for his bedroom (he had recently requested a trash can for his room, and this teal matched his color scheme perfectly)!  Carl got a new cell phone case (his old one broke), new swim trunks (that I fell in love with at Old Navy) and a new pair of jeans.  

And here is a picture of me and the baby bump on Easter Sunday, all ready for church. 

The day before Easter, we helped out at our church's community outreach BBQ.  Here is the baby bump in our church shirt.

Here's the belly in a T-Shirt at our church's community outreach BBQ. 

 

And here is Austin, doing his part at bringing in new people for a free hot dog lunch:

He stood out by the road and held a sign and moved around to bring attention to himself (like wearing a giant hot dog costume didn't do that enough, haha)!  We had a pretty good turnout with the BBQ, and a few people did come to services the next morning!

Week 26, baby weighs about two pounds now!  Wow!  I get weekly updates on my phone that let me know all about what's going on inside of me with the baby's growth.  This week, I was notified that baby will start "pedaling" against my belly.  This is kind of "prewalking" and helps him learn coordination.  I'm sure it gets his left hemisphere and right hemisphere of his brain interacting with each other, building those neural pathways that will help him do all sorts of things as he continues to grow, including speak, read, and of course, walk!  I had been waiting to see if I would feel a difference, knowing what to look for with this "prewalking" and there actually have been a couple of times that I have definitely felt him doing this!  I felt little kicks very close together (in distance, as well as time) and I just KNOW that's what he was doing in there.  I'm still waiting for the day where I can tell which side of him is up and down, but on these particular instances, I know that those are his little feet going to town inside of me.

Last night, I laid awake for a good hour because baby was kicking and rolling around so much.  What made you wake up in the middle of the night, little guy?  Did you get bored?  He probably wakes up much more than I realize, but last night his movements actually kept me awake.  At one point, he calmed down and I patted my stomach saying goodnight to him again, and it woke him back up.  Oopsy!  So I patted my stomach for a little bit and he settled down again.  I can't wait to meet this little boy, I'm so in love with him already.  Here he is (from the outside) at week 26.  This Saturday will be week 27... the start of the third trimester!  Oh boy!!!