The Miracle: 26 Weeks

I can't believe we are at the end of the second trimester...it has gone so quickly that it seems strange to think that 2/3rds of the pregnancy is behind us already! I definitely feel like we are "counting down" rather than "counting up" at this point.

The nesting instinct is kicking in pretty hard, and I am feeling the crunch to hurry up and register for baby things and get the showers scheduled so that we can finish decorating the nursery!! Thanks to all of my mom friends who were so gracious in helping me sort through their own lists of most useful (and useless!) baby items...as a new mom-to-be with no younger siblings, I feel so clueless about every little detail! I know what things I think are pretty, but that doesn't mean that they will be helpful in the long run, so thank you for helping me to steer clear of things I won't really need. Less is more!

I can tell "E" is getting bigger all the time. He seems to be developing a schedule of sleep and activity...now if when he arrives we can just get him on our schedule! :o) Just yesterday I realized that he has started to have hiccups...I didn't recognize them at first because they were happening very close together (unlike when adults have hiccups), but when I asked a mom friend about it she confirmed that's what I was feeling. "E" also seems to be somewhat of a show stealer...on Monday evening I was with some of my Mary Kay girlfriends, and he was moving around so much that everyone was watching my tummy and getting distracted from what we were trying to talk about! Could we have a "ladies' man" in the making?

Here is a little about how "E" has been developing over the past week:

Your baby now weighs about a pound and two-thirds and measures 14 inches (an English hothouse cucumber), from head to heel. The nerve pathways in his ears are developing, which means his response to sounds is growing more consistent. His lungs are developing now, too, as he continues to take small breaths of amniotic fluid — good practice for when he's born and takes that first breath of air. If you're having a boy, his testicles are beginning to descend into his scrotum — a trip that will take about two to three days.