Moving Right Along!!! 24 weeks

I am now 24 weeks 5 days to be specific. The pregnancy is moving right along perfectly as far as I am concerned. I had a check up last week and the Dr said that I am doing well. The baby is moving around and doing what I call "bumping." I started feeling it at 17 weeks, and Lonnie felt him move for the first time at 22 weeks. At first he could only tell it was him if I confirmed it for him, but now you can see my belly jump when he moves or kicks or does whatever it is that he does. It's a fantastic feeling to know that he's in there and doing well. I can't really tell if there is rhyme and reason to his moving. He doesn't seem to move any more if I eat or drink something, or at a certain time. If I am busy and concentrating on something at work he tends to move a lot. I've also been noticing some braxton hicks contractions that are painless. Of course they started the day after my appointment with the doctor and so I didn't get a chance to ask her about it. From everything that I've read online it's ok for your uterus to do this because it's practicing for labor.

I have now been working in the ER for about 3 or 4 weeks. This came about because of overstaffing in the OB unit, and in order to have a full-time job I had to move down to the ER. I am still allowed to go back to OB and help them if they need it, but my primary position is down in the ER. It has been going well, and I have a really nice preceptor to work with. I am getting more and more comfortable with the responsibilities of my position and taking care of patients from start to finish. There is just so much to know in the ER, that I think it will take me a really long time to pick up all of the information. I have about 3 1/2 more months left of work, and a little less than 4 months left of the pregnancy. The job is a bit more physically demanding that I am used to, but I think that it will work out okay.

We recently went up to Portland over father's day weekend. One of the main goals was to register for baby gifts, which we successfully did at Babies R Us and Target. Lonnie held up very well throughout the process and was very patient and even gave input when asked. I think that he had the most fun "testing" the various types of rocking chairs and analyzing them for smoothness of rock, type of fabric, size of the seat and assorted other things. It was an interesting process, and amazing to think of all the stuff that a baby requires just to take care of it. Part of our trip was to find my birthday present from Lonnie which was whatever rocker/glider that I wanted for the baby. We visited about 4 different baby stores, and chair stores and finally settled on and bought a rocking chair that is more like a lazy boy. It's nice and big and has a really nice rock to it.

We have also had some visitors. Lonnie's parents came into town as we were getting back from our trip. We were able to spend some time with them and then his sister came to town and we got to see her too. We haven't seen his sister for about a year and a half and she is moving to Liberia in Africa for her job. She won't be able to come back until Christmas to see Stephen. Lonnie got to see them more than I did because of my work schedule, but we had a good time.