25 weeks - the 3rd Trimester!?!

How your baby's growing: Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. His weight — a pound and a half — isn't much more than an average rutabaga, but he's beginning to exchange his long, lean look for some baby fat. As he does, his wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and he'll start to look more and more like a newborn. His hair is probably recognizable now (in color and texture), although both may change after he's born.

How your life's changing: Your baby's not the only one with more hair — your locks may look more full and lustrous than ever. It's not that you're growing more hair, but the hair you'd normally shed is sticking around longer than usual. You may also notice darker or thicker body hair. It will return to normal in the weeks after you give birth. You probably can't move around as gracefully as before. It's fine to continue to exercise, but use your common sense: Don't work out when you're feeling overly tired, and stop if you feel any pain or when you begin to feel at all fatigued, dizzy, or short of breath. Don't lie on your back too long or do any exercise where you're apt to lose your balance. Be sure to drink plenty of water, and make time for both warm-up and cool-down periods. When you have your glucose-screening test at 24 to 28 weeks, your practitioner may take a second tube of blood at the same time to check for anemia. Although your blood volume increases dramatically during pregnancy, the total amount of your red blood cells becomes diluted — a problem sometimes called physiologic anemia that's common in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. If your blood tests show that you have anemia, your caregiver will likely recommend that you take a supplement.

How I'm doing: Some books call 25 weeks the start of the 3rd trimester. Since the book I have does I guess that means we're in the homestretch (some say it doesn't start until as late as 27 or 28 weeks). It's starting to feel close. Things are going normally. I'm getting bigger and moving around is just starting to get interesting. Getting in and out of the car while it's in the garage is already starting to become a challenge. Since we have a 1-car garage there isn't enough space to open the car doors all the way. I'm wondering if I'll be able to continue to park in the garage until the end of this pregnancy.

We purchased the baby's crib this weekend. After a lot of thought and discussion, we changed our minds and went with a crib from IKEA. First of all, it's a lot cheaper. We felt the extra money would be better placed in a college fund rather than a piece of furniture. Secondly, it's smaller and fits our small space better. Space is a big concern for us since we're staying in our 1-bedroom apartment.

It's important to remember that all cribs have to pass the same safety standards to be sold in the US. So as long as you buy a new crib (or you know the crib's history and if it's been recalled) all crib meet certain standards. Unfortunately, accidents still do happen and babies are injured and killed in cribs every year. Fortunately, IKEA has a clean safety record. Even the floor model was still sturdy and holding up well. That's saying something after the hundreds or thousands of people that go through that rat maze every day shaking it, kicking it and whatever else they might try doing to it to test it's limits. Other pluses are that it's almost completely made with solid beech and spruce and the the trees aren't milled from intact natural forests, so it's a bit more sustainable at least. And it converts into a toddler bed if we keep it after we move and another baby isn't using it.

We also purchased a stroller. It was on a super deal at Amazon.com and we didn't want to miss that price. It's on backorder so we probably won't get it for a while yet anyway. This will be our baby stroller (an infant seat easily snaps in) and then a backup stroller, traveling stroller, or just when we want something smaller (we'd still like to get a more heavy duty stroller than can handle sandy beaches, easy hiking trails, and the bumpy sidewalks of LA).

It's the Kolcraft Contours Options 4 wheeler, wow that's a mouthful:
And the whole seat pops off so the infant car seat can snap in.
We had planned on getting a stroller called a Snap 'n Go anyway, which basically functions almost exactly like the 2nd photo above. We decided it made more sense to pay a little bit more and get a complete stroller that can last through toddlerhood rather than just the first 6 months.

Hopefully Scott will be able to get the crib set up this weekend and I will take some pictures of the "nursery corner". It looks like it's going to be a complicated and time consuming set up though. And we still need to purchase the mattress since these are not included with cribs.