We passed the 23 week milestone last week, it is always a nervous time for me as that is the point at which Charlie & Jackson were born.  I was a bit emotional and paranoid, but feel better now that it has past and 24 weeks is getting here as each new day approaches.  Especially since July baby is SUPER active.  Lauren's placenta was on the front of my uterus so It wasn't until later on that I could feel her move and kick a lot, but July…WOWEE!  A mover, a shaker, a kicker, a puncher.  Sometimes July moves so much while I am sleeping it wakes me up, it is really crazy.  The other day every time I sat down July would start moving like crazy until I was super uncomfortable so I stood for a large portion of the day.  July doesn't seem to mind the bike rides though, which is good because I don't plan on stopping anytime soon.

So now that it is behind us, I am really starting to get excited about July Baby!  Here are a few things we have been not really working on, but stuff I have discovered in the last few days.

Expect.net
It is an online Baby Pool.  Guess the sex, birth date, weight, length and if you are feeling really lucky you can try and guess the name and put it in the relationship/who am I section.  We we will give a prize to the winner, but not sure what the prize is going to be as of yet.  My mom apparently thinks July Baby is going to be trouble, a big rule breaker not following the rules of birthdays in our family!  If you don't know what those rules are…well, sorry, not going to give any clues.

We don't expect to have a shower this time around, although an early summer party sounds like fun, so we will see.  BBQ, kiddy pool set up, our mega bubble blower going, good friends and family here, sounds good.  We don't need much in the way of anything, there are a couple of things, but nothing huge, and we don't expect anyone to get them for us.  We still have the registry that we started with the boys and then converted for Lauren.  If any one out there feels compelled that they MUST get something, our registry can be found at myregistry.com.  I went through it yesterday and I think I removed all the things we don't need.

The next midwife appointment isn't for a few weeks yet and I will be a week shy of entering the 3rd trimester!  Crazy!  It is my glucose test appointment so I am not really looking forward to it, at least it is only the one hour one, we'll see what happens this time around.  I'll be going from once a month appointments to every two weeks with that appointment, and then in June I start the once a week appointments.  July baby will be here before we know it.

Lauren is starting to maybe understand what is happening, she will give my belly kisses, and we have been reading lots of books about babies lately.  If you ask her what is in momma's belly she still says "Dada" but she saw a little baby a couple of weeks ago and said "dada" so…who knows.  The biggest thing with her is that she is working on her last two teeth, the bottom incisors (eye teeth) and hopefully they come through soon.  The other is the the fact that she very much enjoys taking EVERYTHING out of the dresser and putting it in a large pile.  It wasn't too bad a month ago, she didn't have that much stuff in the dresser, but after being given a huge amount of hand me downs there are a lot more things to take out, and then refold, resort and put back in.  I might have to figure out a way to keep her out.  Anyone with suggestions feel free.  I don't really want to drill anything into or permanently adhere anything to the dresser though.

I started prenatal yoga again and I am very much enjoying it, and re-reading and brushing up with the HypnoBirthing.  It served me very well with Lauren's birth and we plan on having a birth very similar with July.  We also talked to our Pediatrician and Midwives about not sticking around the hospital.  We were given the all clear that if there were no complications with the birth and everyone was in good health we were free to go whenever we wanted, which is good, because the hospital is no place to relax that is for sure, we will be happiest at home.  So there is a lengthy update for you. I keep meaning to write more frequently but sometimes it just doesn't happen.