Pregnancy Weeks 23-25: Visiting Family for the Holidays

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. We flew home to visit family for the holidays and stayed for three weeks. We spent well over a week of it battling various illnesses, so we didn't get to visit with as many friends and family as we would have liked. E got an ear infection and strep within days of our arrival. I came down with the world's longest cold shortly after (I still have a bit of a cough), and then hubs got the flu.

We had a very nice Christmas, though, as E had just gotten over her illnesses and I only had mild cold symptoms. My parents got her plenty of toys and shoes. Girlfriend loves her some shoes, haha. When she opened up a box with two pairs of shoes in it, she exclaimed "Ooooooooooo!" We had to ship back a good deal of items and we left many of the toys with my parents so the kids will have things to play with when we visit in the future.

Here are the progress pictures I took for 23-25 weeks.

23, 24, and 25 weeks with this pregnancy

23, 24, and 25 weeks with E

23, 24, and 25 weeks with this pregnancy

23, 24, and 25 weeks with E

It looks like there was a big jump in belly size from 23 to 24 weeks with both pregnancies, which is interesting. I look softer/fluffier at 24 weeks than 25 weeks with this pregnancy.

E is starting to get very interested in babies. Hubs and I have been telling her for months that I am going to have another baby. Sometimes she seems to get it, other times she does not seem to care. However, my sister in law had a baby while we were visiting and now E is very interested in my belly. She carries her baby dolls around and asks about the baby in my belly often. She also likes to lift up my shirt and give my belly kisses.

This weekend was a little more eventful than I would have cared for. We got back from our visit on Friday, so I was looking forward to recovering from jet lag over the weekend. Saturday evening, I started having some Braxton hicks contractions. I don't normally pay these much mind, but they started getting really close together (every 4 minutes or so). I tried drinking a metric ton of water, and that helped for awhile, but then they came back.

I called L&D, and they told me to come in for monitoring. By the time I got there, the contractions had slowed to every 20 minutes. The nurse decided to check me and noted my cervix felt short and that I am now about 50% effaced. She thought maybe that was just my normal since this is my second pregnancy. Then she pulled my anatomy ultrasound results and decided this was not the case. The tech specifically looked at my cervix length since I had just been in a car accident. The tech noted at that point (about 19/20 weeks) that my cervix was not effaced at all and of the appropriate length.

I saw my provider on Tuesday, and she asked me to monitor any future contractions. She wants me to come in for more monitoring if I get more than 6 contractions in an hour and she will order an FFN and an ultrasound to get a more accurate measurement of my cervix. Hopefully, it won't come to that. I'd like my baby to be a little chubbier before starting any more contraction antics.

Speaking of which, at 25 weeks baby girl measures about 13.5 inches and weighs about 1.5 pounds. She is about the size of an acorn squash or a rutabaga. I had my glucose tolerance test, and that came back normal.

We're creeping up on the third trimester, and it's making me anxious. I feel so unprepared even though I have 90% of the things I need from my first daughter. I really just want to get the nursery set up, but to do that we have to transition our daughter from her crib to a big girl bed. Our plan is to take the front off her crib this weekend and attach the toddler guard rail.

After a few weeks of that, we are taking off the rail and making it a day bed. We are also bringing the double up from the guestroom downstairs and putting it in the office. The office will eventually be the nursery, but for now I want E to get used to seeing the big bed. I'm also going to try and get her to nap in it if at all possible. Eventually, we will move the double into her room and put the crib back together in the nursery. Here is to hoping for a smooth transition!