Week 27: "Cauliflower"

This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother her, so just relax and enjoy the tickle. (http://www.babycenter.com/)

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So from what I gather, third trimester technically starts at 28 weeks, which is next week. Some people say it starts at 27 weeks, so it can be very confusing. Either way, I'm practically there, but I guess I'll start celebrating next week. Here is my 27 week belly pic.

I've been getting lots of stares at my belly lately. We were at the mall the other week with my parents and my dad said he noticed all these women looking at my belly -- most likely because of my HUGE belly button! I still haven't gotten an official "stranger comment" (where a complete stranger starts talking to you out of the blue about your pregnancy). But what I have gotten are people saying things like "I assume you want the non-smoking section..." while eyeing my belly. It is really quite funny. What I wanted to say was, "no, I plan on smoking tonight." Just kidding.

Pregnancy has been such a fascinating journey. I sometimes find myself wanting to skip to the part where my baby is peacefully sleeping in my arms. But then I remember I need to live in the moment and try to treasure each and every day of having her inside me. So I'm trying to consciously remind myself of that. Especially because I know she won't always be "sleeping peacefully in my arms" -- she could be screaming in my arms. As I write this, she is kicking away...so cute!

Speaking of kicking, her kicks have gotten significantly stronger in the last week. It has even startled me at times -- I've literally jumped a couple times when she kicked and I wasn't expecting it. I wish I could take a peek inside from time to time to see what she is up to. I often wonder what she is actually doing. It's still a little hard to tell what position she is in. It's pretty roomy in there yet so she can move around quite a bit, but it would be fun to know for sure where her head, hands, and feet are.

With Christmas and the third trimester just around the corner, reality has begun to sink in that we will have a little baby to take care of in a few short months. As much as I have looked forward to the day I become a mommy (since I was 6 or so), I am all of a sudden petrified. We will be responsible to raise a little baby and she will be a teenager one day! We don't have a clue what we're doing. Oh my...so nerve-wracking! I guess we can only pray for wisdom, grace, and patience in the process. I also realized recently that Teirney and I will have been married for 7 years when Bebita is born, which means we've had 7 years to get into a groove of having no kids and doing whatever we want, whenever we want. Ah yes, that will all change. Life will be so different and yet we both look forward to it and will embrace the change. Ready or not, here she comes!

I feel like I'm making some progress in our apartment. I need to rearrange some closets to make room for some things we still have in boxes, but after that, we'll be ready to tackle the nursery. Yay! Probably just in time to move again. Well, not really, but we are keeping our eyes open for a house to buy. It would be hard to move right after we have Bebita, so I think we'll get our use out of the nursery for a bit before that happens.

Teirney has some depositions in Hudson Thursday and Friday, so I plan on going with him tomorrow night and staying at the hotel. Then we'll travel to the Cities on Friday afternoon to visit with Marah. It will be a fun and busy next couple weeks.

Since it's almost Midnight here, I really need to sign off...until next time.