Week 24

Week 24 and baby O is still a papaya

I can't believe I am already a month over halfway through this pregnancy.  It is honestly going by way too fast.  Too fast for many reasons; Sawyer is still so little and I do feel very guilty springing a sibling on him.  Too fast because in just a few months I'll have 2 very small people to take care of in addition to a medium size girl, a large husband and myself!  I am surprised I don't really feel overwhelmed at the thought, just a little guilty.  Like maybe I was selfish for wanting another child?  Anyone else experience these feelings or something similar?

Fetal development in pregnancy week 24:

This is another big week for your magical growing baby! Just take a look at the checklist for this week: 1) ears: done; 2) fingernails: done; 3) (if you have a boy) testicles: taking their 3-4 day trip from the abdominal wall to the scrotum; and 4) lungs walls: secreting “surfactant”. What’s that? Well, surfactant is sort of what it sounds like: a surface-activated fat whose main purpose is to assist the your baby's little lungs during inflation (as in, filling with air, not getting more expensive). Just in case you’re curious, your submerged baby is still breathing in amniotic fluid, preparing and rehearsing the lungs an oxygen-filled life outside the womb. By the end of this week, your child will be weighing around 2 lbs and 14 inches long. Your baby is almost completely formed, and is beginning to deposit brown fat on his or her body. The purpose of the brown fat is to retain body heat. Newborns are notoriously bad at regulating body temperature at first. This is particularly a problem for a baby born early. Your cutie-patootie may even be a little more plump, but isn't anywhere near their full baby-fatted cute-self. Most of the “filling out” is coming up in that long awaited (and slightly dreaded?) third trimester. Woo-hoo! Get ready!