24 Weeks

Giant Baby Halekas gets more giant and strong by the day. I believe he threw his first tantrum this week, which of course took place INSIDE OF ME, and was thus fairly disconcerting. I am starting to fear that maybe I could be growing an X-Man baby and maybe due to his mutant strength he could become a danger to me? Like, before he’s even born?

This week we are back to measuring his growth by length, and he is as long as an ear of corn:

We are measuring my growth by the fact that seriously, there is no way to overlook the fact that girlfriend is pregnant:

This is the week when suddenly the baby’s closet needed to be cleaned out and all the hand-me-downs needed to be organized by size and also the crib sheets needed buying and maybe some baby body wash, because there will come a day when we will need to clean the grime off of him. It seems 24 weeks said something to my brain about not having all the time in the world and maybe we should get some of these chores done already. So I did. Many hours of washing and folding and I finally can eye up a onesie and make a decent guess about what size of “very small” it really is. This is how it shakes out:

Really small: 6 months
OMG, so small: 3-6 months
NO WAY, SO CRAZY SMALL: newborn/0-3 months

This was also the week that my body started to reject my adapted sleeping position (a side/belly combo with one leg hitched up, to prevent it from becoming total belly). So I got myself one of these C-shaped body pillows that all the pregnant ladies rave about and I think I might be in love.

I also finally broke down and bought maternity jeans. Which brings me to a thing about my body which is odd, but I guess pretty much a good thing? The jeans that fit me best in all this whole wide world are sold at Target. I know -- isn’t my husband the luckiest? I don’t really know what it means that Sevens don’t do a dang thing for my posterior parts and Lucky Brand has a hip to waist ratio that corresponds not at all to my hips or my waist... but I do know that it means that my jeans cost $30 instead of $180 (or more!) So, yes, I buy my jeans at Target, and no, I’m not proud of it. Of course, I didn’t know if this magic would continue into the world of maternity, what with the different designer on the jeans and the whole different figure on the girl. But lo and they fit.

Money saved having a cheap body type: $50-200

Number of hats our baby owns: 12 (Seriously. Who knew? It is a good thing about the hand-me-downs, because I would have had NO CLUE that our baby needed such an extensive hat collection.)
Number of Halloween-themed outfits our baby owns that will probably fit him around May: 2 (Alas, his cousins were born in spring.)
Number of frog-themed bath towels our baby owns: 2
Number of houses that have received an earthquake retrofit in anticipation of our baby’s arrival: 1

Number of people who have touched the belly: 14

Photo of corn: Baby Center