26

Baby stats this week:

• The baby is the length of a cucumber!!  Around 15 inches long!
• Weighs between 1.7-2.2 lbs.  (and feels like it, geez!)
• Our kid is the next Mia Hamm..or Muhammed Ali.  It really digs kicking and punching me at the same time.
• It's so big that I can actually SEE where it is in my belly sometimes! Last night you could see it's head sticking out of one side of my belly and feel the bum near the bottom.  How CrAzY is that?!

26 weeks is 6 1/2 months.  I read that this week our baby could actually survive if it decided to meet the world, although it would have no fat on it whatsoever.  That's a fear of mine, the baby being premie.  I actually had a nightmare about it the other night.  I've been having lots of dreams about baby us and labor and the like, but this was just kind of lumped all my fears into one.

I dreamed that we went in for our next appointment and they admitted me to the hospital because I went into labor.  I ended up passing out from the pain and they couldn't wake me up.  The doctor assumed the pain was too much so she gave me an epidural.  Well, that made me so loopy and out of it that I couldn't push, even when they told me to, so they did a C-section.  I was still so drugged up after they took the baby out that I couldn't even focus enough to hold my own precious baby.  They told me it was a girl (which was shocking as everyone tells me it's a boy these days) and asked me what I wanted to name it.  I could barely even remember what names we had decided upon.  It was so horrible!!  

I know that I need to have real expectations for birth.  I know that it may not work out exactly as I have planned. So maybe these dreams are to prepare me for varying scenarios.  Regardless, I just hope that I have confidence in myself enough to make the safest decisions for my baby.  I don't want to be clouded by the temptation of medications or let my fears convince me that my body that it wasn't made to do this, because I was.  I know that.  I was wonderfully and fearfully made.  Jesus tells me so :)

Oh, and here is this week's pic (or what I like to call evidence of the baby-growth explosion!)  

Holy Cow...6 months!!

Ohhhh man, I am so behind on this blog (as to be expected).  In my defense, the last two weeks were pretty stinkin' hectic!  We went to San Diego for our wedding anniversary and had an AMAZING time!!  We went to our favorite museums, soaked up some sun on the beach, and visited with some friends :)  We were only home 2 days before we packed up and traveled home to Tennessee for my brother-in-law's wedding.  That trip was also incredible, but for totally different reasons.  We were able to visit with so many wonderful family members and friends!  Some of which I hadn't seen in YEARS!  My mom threw us a baby shower and I was just overwhelmed with the love and blessings from the people in my life!

This was our lunch on our first ever, 1st class flight we took traveling to TN.  (We were totally the annoying Beverly Hillbillies riding up there)

Needless to say, by the time I got home I was joyfully exhausted!  Traveling is MUCH more difficult pregnant!  When I got home I slept every minute that I wasn't at work for two days.  (And I ate a salad for every meal.  I love southern food, but lordy I think I ate 4 lbs. of bacon while I was there ;)

Since then, it has come to my attention that I'm going to be having a baby pretty soon.   In 3-4 months soon.  When did this happen?!  It seems like I was just complaining about how long this process was taking and now I'm like, "Whoa Nelly!!  Slooooooow down!"  One minute I'm finding it frustrating that my favorite jeans don't button and all of a sudden I look like this:

That hump there is 24 cm!  Inside the baby is about the size of an eggplant (or loaf of bread depending on which website you read), it's about 9 inches and 1.7lbs.  and grOWING!!

We had our 24 week appointment on Friday and it turned out to be really awesome!  Our midwife was super positive!  She said that we're right on target for progress, the baby is doing great, and that it is so lucky to have parents like us :)  That was the sweetest part!

I have to admit, I can't really have any complaints (although you all know that I do from time to time). Largely, I just feel so blessed.  I couldn't ask for a healthier baby or pregnancy so far.  The weight is right on track for me and the baby, it's loving life kicking and doing acrobatics (or sometimes punching and kicking at the same time- which is a seriously wild feeling!), and it is surrounded by such blessings and love that it won't want for anything when it arrives!

The carpal tunnel stinks, but it doesn't effect our baby in any way and John has really been awesome through it.  Hey, how else would he have learned to do ponytails on girls if he didn't have to do my hair when my arm flares up?  It's great practice if we have a little lady :)

Today we had a meeting with our doula and she gave us all kinds of resources to look into for childbirth and breastfeeding classes.  It seems silly that women have been doing this since the dawn of time and now we have to take classes for it.  But, I'm not gonna lie, I want all the info I can get my hands on.  So, I'll let you know how that goes :)