Prenatal, party of one

I’m taking a prenatal course online.

As at peace and confident that I am with my decision to embark on solo motherhood, there’s still a part of me that doesn’t want to walk into a prenatal class alone. Or with my mom.

Sorry, mom. It’s not personal. I don’t want to go with dad, either. Or my bestie.

So, online. Why not?

First of all, it’s free. Plus, I can take each segment at my leisure, from the comfort of home, eating a bowl of cereal, with dirty hair, in my housecoat.

Let’s get this prenatal prep party started, I say!

Speaking of prenatal, I had my glucose test yesterday.

Had to chug this sucker in less than five minutes; I did it in less than three, thank you very much. I just wanted to get it over with.

You’d think a bottle of liquid sugar would taste good.

Then I waited around for an hour, after which I had my blood drawn.

Fingers crossed my pancreas was in top form and processed all that sweet elixir as it should have, ruling out gestational diabetes.

This standard procedure marks my 24th week. Baby is 11.5 inches long, and now weighs just over a pound.

If I had a baby cam, I could get my first peek at baby’s face, since it’s now almost fully developed. The eyelashes are even there. And I’ll bet they’re already longer and fuller than mine.

I wouldn’t be able to tell what colour hair he or she will have, however, since baby’s hair is white at this stage, due to lack of pigment. That’s still to come.

The little burrito started to form capillaries this week, resulting in that soft baby skin becoming less translucent; as blood circulates it adds more of a pinkish undertone to the complexion.

My innie is still an innie, but apparently I’ll soon be a member of the outie club – though only temporarily!

As I write this, I can feel tiny flutters as baby enjoys its own party of one. I’ve yet to feel any major kicks, most likely due to the fact that my placenta is at the front. This is called anterior placenta; the placenta will grow wherever the embryo implants into the wall of the uterus. Mine set up shop right at the front of my belly.

Which is getting bigger by the week, by the way!

Let the pregnancy party continue.