26 Weeks

Me at 26 weeks preggo! My belly button is a full-on "outie" now.

It's insane that we are already 6.5 months along! Will we seriously be in our 3rd trimester in just 5 days? This whole process is passing by far too quickly. We have been so blessed to have a pretty easy pregnancy so far and we grow more excited each week to meet our darling daughter. We already love her more than we ever thought possible. At 26 weeks her ears are pretty developed and can supposedly hear all of our conversations. She's doing practice breathing, inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, to develop her lungs. She's putting on more baby fat, weighing around 1 and 2/3 lbs and is about 14 inches head to heel, the size of a cucumber.

Well, other people can finally see her move now!. My mother also got to see her and feel her move this last week. It usually doesn't take this long for people to be able to feel baby move but, apparently, the position of my placenta sort-of  "pads" her movements. I won't complain as she has yet to keep me awake at night. There is nothing in this world that brings me more joy than feeling her move! 

I said our pregnancy has been pretty easy so far. The only thing I am having issues with lately is my feet swelling a bit. I know I need to stay off of them more and prop them up but I am just not the kind of person who can just sit around. I have to keep busy. I'm trying to be a good patient, and the swelling does go down when I take it easy. 

Thankfully, I passed my Gestational Diabetes test the first time at our last appointment! Score! I was convinced I was going to fail as I am a sugar-aholic. However, I ate only eggs for breakfast and my test wasn't until 2:30 so I just drank water all day up until 2 hours before. Then to take my mind off of hunger/thirst, I went shopping (well, more like window shopping). When I got to the appointment, I drank the little drink (mine was "fruit punch" flavored) first. I just chugged it down because the one time I pulled it away from my mouth, it had an aftertaste of medicine. Other than that, it wasn't that bad. Not as terrible, or even as sweet, as some people made it out to be. The only thing I thought was odd was that I had to drink it in the lobby of the OB's office with all those people watching me. I suppose they have to make sure you get it down somehow, an insurance requirement I assume.

Then, I waited for an hour chatting with another 24-weeker who had just finished drinking her drink. When it was time to draw blood, to my dismay, it was not a blood draw from the arm, it was a finger stick. As much as I hate needles and blood being drawn from my arm, I dislike finger sticks more. That horrible "click" noise the needle makes causes me to jump out of my skin and it definitely stings more and for much longer. When the OB came in and said "Well, you passed by a long shot. 20 points under," I could have fainted, and not from the lack of nourishment. I was SO excited I could have kissed him. (If you fail the first GB test you have to come back, drink the drink again, and sit in the waiting room for 3 HOURS and they take blood every hour on the hour. Um, no thanks.) So, now I am DONE with tests and blood draws.Sigh of relief. Thank you to everyone who prayed for me that day, I know they were heard. I also, of course, got to listen to her sweet heart beat again. That's my favorite part of the appointments (other than when we have ultrasounds). It was beating mighty fast this time, I'm sure mommy's nerves and that sugary drink were to blame.

At our next appointment we will be seeing our baby girl in 4-D! I cannot tell you how excited I am for this. We will be almost 29 weeks at that point so we might get a pretty good idea as to what/who she will look like. I wonder about this all of the time.

Her nursery is coming along slowly but surely. I am hoping we  will have all of our part of the painting done by the middle of this coming week so then we can begin to get quotes for the complicated part (yes, I am being complicated, would you expect anything else?) and decide on that by the end of the week. Then, the next week get that knocked out, so that painting will be DONE and we can being moving her furniture in, which came in this week. I cannot wait to see it all set up! I promise many photographs soon.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I know we did. A ton of food, fun, and family time with much to be thankful for and an Auburn Iron Bowl victory to boot! God has blessed us all so richly and far more than any of us deserve. I hope we all take the time to reflect on that, and not just on Thanksgiving day, but every day. What are we most thankful for in our household this year? Leighton Elizabeth McGhee, of course.