29 Weeks!!

Today we are 29 weeks along!!
Baby is growing rapidly now! She should be around 2.5 lbs and just over 15 inches long (about the size of a butternut squash). Her muscles and lungs are continuing to mature and her head is getting bigger to accommodate that growing brain:) About 200mg of calcium is being deposited into Baby's bones daily, and her skeleton is now hardening. Her nutritional needs will peak during the 3rd trimester, which is no surprise with all the growing she's doing!

We had our first baby class tonight:) They did give us dolls to practice with, but the social climate in the room wasn't appropriate for cameras and picture-taking, so I refrained. Tim did hold the baby doll, but I had to change her diaper and swaddle her for him :P We learned several new things--most interestingly was the idea that swaddling, shushing, rocking, etc a crying baby doesn't actually cause them to sleep, but puts them in what the instructor called a "shut-down" mode because their need isn't being met and now they're over-stimulated. Hershey participated in a new study that found that the babies put to sleep this way were not producing the same brain wave patterns as when they fell asleep on their own. Nothing has been published yet and the AAP hasn't made any new recommendations, so we were told to keep our ears open for some changes.
Bean has been very active the last couple of days. Her feet can reach my ribs now, unfortunately:P And some of her kicks are strong enough to jar me out of a sound sleep. And I am getting more rolls and thumps (don't know what else to call them) that are more visible from the outside. I was reading my kindle on the couch the other day with the hand holding the kindle resting on my belly, and had to switch positions because she was bouncing it all over the place:P

My doctor's appointment is at 9:15 tomorrow morning. I'm hoping everything goes well, and will let everyone know how it goes when we get home.

Only 11 weeks to go!