24 weeks

Here's what is going on with Noah this week, according to babycenter.com;

Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at just over a pound. Since he's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), he cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but his body is filling out proportionally and he'll soon start to plump up. His brain is also growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. His skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon. In the past few weeks, the top of your uterus has risen above your belly button and is now about the size of a soccer ball. Most women have a glucose screening test (also called a glucose challenge test or GCT) between now and 28 weeks. This test checks for gestational diabetes, a pregnancy-related high-blood-sugar condition. Untreated diabetes increases your risk of having a difficult vaginal delivery or needing a cesarean section because it causes your baby to grow too large, especially in his upper body. It also raises your baby's odds for other complications like low blood sugar right after birth. A positive result on your GCT doesn't mean you have gestational diabetes, but it does mean that you'll need to take the glucose tolerance test (GTT) to find out for sure. Finally, if you don't already know how to spot the signs of preterm labor, now's the time to learn.

As for me; I'm still feeling good, and still feeling hungry every 1-2 hours.  I'm having a little bit more difficult of a time sleeping some nights (between getting comfortable, and getting up so often to visit the restroom), so I tend to be a little more tired during the day now.  I'm hot almost all of the time, which is absolutely the opposite of my pre-pregnant self.  I've been getting a slight bit of back pain from time to time, but I'm sure that's to be expected.  It is starting to get a little harder to bend over with my big belly in the way, and it's also getting a little harder to get out of bed or off of couches.  And when I do go to get up my tummy visibly looks very funny as my displaced abs work to get me up, so I've been trying to pull or push myself up as much as possible and avoid the weird tummy straining thing that happens when I get up like a normal person.  Noah still moves around a whole lot.  My favorite foods are still sausage, sushi, pickles, and watermelon, or really any type of meat or fruit in general.  Everything is going very well overall, a little over 3 months left to go.  My next doctor's appointment is next Wednesday, they won't be doing anything special though, just weighing me and listening for Noah's heart rate.

Shannon