Week 25

Emile and I saw our little girl kicking this week (24w1d). It was pretty amazing to see her little body moving around in there and slightly weird! From what I've read, we can actually start "playing" with her through my belly -- she may actually respond to our touches through my belly wall! She's been much more active lately. It's a pretty strange feeling when she moves around a lot. She seems to be the most active at night and about mid-morning. I'm looking forward to seeing her moving around in person very soon!

She has now formed all 33 rings, 150 joints and 1,000 ligaments in the structure of her spine. The surfactant that is essential for lung function after birth is also beginning to develop. All five senses are fully developed. She's close to 2 lbs now and starting to fill out!

I'm having a harder time putting my socks on and taking my pant legs off etc. I think I make more noises now too when I move around :). I'm just flat out getting big! I think today I may have also felt my first Braxton-Hicks contraction which I've read can start around this time -- a definite tightening of my belly that relaxed in the middle of the day. But maybe it was something else. We'll see if it happens again.

Other than that, Emile and I have been preparing for our move into our new house. Today we went furniture shopping at a million square foot store called Furnituresouth Land near Greensboro (about an hour drive away). They had more furniture in one 4 story store than I've seen anywhere and it is all 40-45% off suggested retail prices! We found a great living room set and office furniture. We're probably going to go back after we close on the house to get these pieces. I'll need the office furniture sooner than later since I'm not telecommuting from home. It will also be nice to have living room furniture so when people come to visit they have somewhere to sit and the room isn't bare when you walk in. We're going to work on decorate one room at a time over the next few years (after getting these first two sets of items).