My friend Jessica had her little girl last night! Cadence Rae is 8 lbs. 5 oz. and super cute! Go wish the mama congrats at her blog.

Sounds like everything went well. Jessica was even able to provide a few updates via Twitter and Facebook! Whoa!

I’m 24 weeks and gaining weight! Oh yeah!

I weighed in at 142 pounds this morning at my OB appointment. That’s eight pounds more than I weighed at my 19-week appointment visit, and six pounds more than my official pre-pregnancy weight. It’s the most I’ve ever weighed!

The doc said my weight was “perfect” and that made me happy. I still have about 20 pounds or so to gain in oh, 13 to 18 weeks.

Good thing I have a little boy who is going to help me with this by doing his part to get nice and chubby.

I suspect I might have a slight bladder infection. I’ll spare you the details, but if I do indeed have one, it’s important that it’s treated with antibiotics. If not, it could develop into a more serious infection and could even lead to preterm labor. Not good.

I’m heading over to the pee-in-a-cup lab a little later today, and I’ll know the results in about 48 hours.

Shane and I picked out a crib. I’m planning to order it on Amazon since the price is good and we can get free shipping. The same thing would cost about $100 more at Target with shipping! No thanks.

I think we’ll place the order in a week or so. I’d order it now, but we’ll be out of town at the end of the month and I don’t want it to just sit at the bottom of the stairs until we get back or be handled additional times by UPS or whatever.

This way, we’ll have time to set it up and if we change our minds, we can return it and get another one with plenty of time to spare.
So, we’ve picked a crib, a carseat, a playard, and that’s probably all of the major things we’ll want to get beforehand. I need to select a mattress, and of course we’ll need little things such as sheets and some more clothes, but I’m not picky about those last two.

My mother-in-law very kindly mentioned having a baby shower for me in a few weeks when we come back to Indiana, but I just don’t know. I don’t see how we’ll be able to fit it in our schedule, and I don’t want it to be hard on anyone. Plus, I feel kind of awkward about opening presents in front of people. We really don’t need much, and I’ll be fine if we don’t have one.

Oh, and last night with our dinner, we each had an ear of corn. Turns out, that’s how big Baby is this week!

From 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.

See what your baby looks like this week. (Or see what fraternal twins look like in the womb this week.)

Edit: I think it’s a crazy raccoon.

A little before 6 a.m., Shane and I heard a crazy sound.

Some sort of animal was making a major racket outside, and since the weather was nice and we slept with the windows open, we certainly heard the thing.

It was the first time I heard it. Shane has heard it three times now and on one occasion, he tried to record it with his cell phone, but it didn’t work.

I have no idea what it could possibly be, but I’ll do my best to describe it:

It’s probably a large rodent or some other unflying, two or four-legged creature. It sounded like someone threw him in a washing machine, turned on the spin cycle, and let him free. When he made his sound, it sounded like a crazy, rabid animal who wants to scare the pants off anyone who dared get near him. Parts of his noise almost sounded like a turkey or a flustered chicken.

He carried on with his ruckus for less than a minute this time. In the past, Shane estimates that he was louder and carried on for a few minutes before fading into the night.

Maybe some unfortunate turtle wandered by this creature’s home and startled it awake. I can just picture a surprised little turtle, flipped onto its back and taking cover from such a freak show.

Its noise reminded me of an attacked creature taking its last few breaths, but after I heard it for more than a few seconds, I realized that it wasn’t dying–it was just being what it is, whatever that may be.

We’re truly baffled at what sort of an animal would sound like that.

If we lived in a tropical rainforest or even in the desert, I wouldn’t be as surprised to hear it. But we live in the city. There is nothing rural about where we live. The small patch of trees behind our apartment provide enough shade and protection for birds and small animals, but it’s not the wilderness. And we’re not close to the zoo, so I’m pretty certain nothing has escaped and wandered our way.

I’m just going to chalk this thing up as yet another crazy sound we’ve only heard in Pittsburgh.

I know we’ll probably never find out what it is. I hope I don’t ever encounter that crazy thing.

OK, so I’m 21 weeks pregnant and nothing much has changed since last week. I don’t feel like posting a belly pic, because I’m smaller than my last pic and that’s just ridiculous.

Yesterday, I went to the dentist to have her repair a filling that got knocked loose. She didn’t use Novocaine because it was just a small little cavity. I’ve had enough dental work to know that the Novocaine shot hurts! I was glad to skip that and the several hours of numbness. Honestly, it didn’t hurt.

I tried to distract myself by focusing on our honeymoon when we were on a cruise ship and woke up in Juneau, Alaska. So peaceful! Such pure air! The total opposite of dental work.

I consciously relaxed my body and tried to hold as still as possible while thinking about Alaska. Next thing I knew, it was over. Piece of cake.

While in the chair, Baby was moving a LOT. I don’t know if it was because I was sort of reclined and holding still (and more in tune with my body at the time), or if he was dancing to the music on the radio, or if he could tell that I was stressed and was reacting to that. He was a nice distraction.

Shane likes to talk at and sing to my belly. The baby responds to his voice now, and starts wiggling! I don’t know if he can hear sounds or just senses the vibrations, but it does seem to do the trick.

I’m researching childbirth classes, and I’m pretty sure I’d like to take a Bradley Method course. I need to do more research on the class, but it sounds like the best option for what we’re seeking. Bonus: Our insurance will reimburse us 100 percent for this expense! Oh yeah!

We’re trying to get things more organized around here by getting rid of junk, selling stuff on eBay, and getting things in order. I’ve been dabbling in “freezer cooking” and it’s gone well. We added just a few items to a registry at Target, and I’ll need to update that.

Trying to pick out the “best” car seat, crib, and other baby gear is a bit overwhelming, especially considering we have no idea what we’re doing. We have a small car with an even smaller backseat, and we’ll need to find a car seat that is no bigger than 23 to 24 inches from the back of the back seat to the back of the front seat. Good luck to us!

I need to just take one thing at a time so my brain won’t explode. I’ll research car seats for awhile, and pick one, and move on to cribs and research those…and then move on. If I try to get it all done at once, it won’t be pretty.
Here’s what’s up according to BabyCenter.com:

Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long — the length of a carrot. You may soon feel like he’s practicing martial arts as his initial fluttering movements turn into full-fledged kicks and nudges. You may also discover a pattern to his activity as you get to know him better. In other developments, your baby’s eyebrows and lids are present now.

I dunno yet, but I hope you’ll make a guess and vote in my poll! Check the right sidebar to cast your vote. We’ll hopefully find out on August 2, and I’ll let you know some time that day.