24 Weeks

Christmas is right around the corner and the holidays are in full swing! I had two holiday parties at work in the past week. Both were very kid oriented, but still fun. The first one was a "Planet Earth" theme. My work group (Finance) took over one of the large conference buildings and each room was made into a different theme to represent part of the earth (for example: under the sea) with corresponding food and drink. Ethan and I walked around, watched hula dancers, ate thai food and cupcakes, and listened to a jazz band in the Ice room. It was pretty fun. The other party was for the Windows group, and that was in my building. My work group had a snow man decorating contest with fake snowmen, and then we just ate and drank and walked around talking to people. It was fun.

Ethan's company doesn't have a Christmas party! I guess it's understandable, because it's such a big company, but still. He has the huge 787 launch coming up this week and gets to attend the "first flight" of the 787, which is a really big deal. He had to work overtime all weekend to help prepare for the big launch.

We also celebrated the first night of Hannukah this week. Unfortunately our menorah is packed away somewhere and we couldn't find it to light the candles on Friday. On Saturday our friends Becca and John brought their menorah over and we ate brisket and latkes and celebrated. I remembered almost the entire Hannukah prayer without having the words in front of me! Tonight, we had some family over for a little early Christmas party since we can't all be together Christmas morning. Caleb's aunt and uncle Elayna and Sean got us a really cute baby book to put photos and memories in for the first 5 years of his life.

In baby related news, Ethan painted the nursery this weekend! He has been working so hard on it for the past few days. I have to admit, I was a little nervous about the color, but I think it came out really nice. We also went shopping today and got the dresser and some great decorations for the room. I can't wait until the paint is dry so we can start putting stuff up. We'll probably do that next weekend.

I got a little nervous for Caleb this week because he went through a couple days where he hardly moved, but it must have been a growth spurt or something, because today he's been back at it and kicking as much as he ever did. Yesterday Ethan and I went to check out the birthing class we are signing up for, which is called Hypnobirthing, and we also found our doula. A doula is basically a birth helper who is there from the start of labor until the baby is born. She will mostly be there to guide Ethan and help him to help me when I need it. She will also do things like help me find more comfortable positions when I'm having contractions and stuff like that. I'm excited about having a doula, and I think it will be good for our birth experience, but man, I can't believe that we are already going to be starting birth classes soon! Time is flying!

Here is the baby update for the week:

How far along: 24 weeks, 2 days

Sleep: not so great. My sinuses have been acting up like crazy this week. I almost wonder if I have a sinus infection, but I think it's just normal pregnancy stuffiness. I bought a neti pot, which seems weird to use, but it is actually really helpful for clearing out my nose.

Best Moment This Week: Painting the baby room

Movement: I had some anxiety about it this week when Caleb was quiet for a couple days, but all is back to normal now.

Food Cravings: I'm trying to cut back on the junk. I don't know how successful I've been though. I made a batch of delicious chocolate chip cookies this weekend and I must have ate at least 10 of them over all. Sigh.

What I miss most: Not having burning, itchy sinuses

What I'm looking forward to: starting to put up our decorations in the nursery!

This Week: Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. Her weight — a pound and a half — isn't much more than an average rutabaga, but she's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn. She's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture.