27 Weeks

Figured it had been a while since my last work bathroom belly shot…

Size of the Baby: About 2 pounds and 14.5 inches long. She’s gaining weight way faster than she’s growing longer now. Neat.

Weight gain/loss: It’s done its now-normal crazy fluctuation this week — up 2 pounds one morning, down 3 the next day. I’ve weighed myself daily for a few years now and that’s more fluctuation than I usually see so I’m chalking it up to a pregnancy symptom of mine. Anyway, total gain is 15-16 pounds and I’m feeling pretty good about that, especially now that I am quite noticeably pregnant.

Maternity clothes: We went to Kohl’s over the weekend to get Jose some new pants, and an old co-op friend had mentioned on FB that they carry maternity clothes. They did have 4 or 5 small racks, so I tried on a dress and two shirts. I didn’t like any of them. On top of that, I ordered a couple tops from Target online and they didn’t fit at all either. There also seems to be an assumption that I want to show off large portions of my chest while pregnant. Perhaps that is true for some women, but I am not those women!

I’m starting to come to the conclusion that maternity clothes are just not built for my body type or something! Fortunately, flowy tops and empire waist dresses seem to be popular enough right now that I was able to find a dress, a work-appropriate shirt, and a good t-shirt at Kohl’s in the normal women’s section that work as maternity wear. (And I think/hope they’ll work all the way till the end.)

I could still use a few more work shirts though, or else my coworkers will just have to get used to seeing me wear the same 5 outfits every week.

Sleep: The belly feels like it has doubled in size in the last few weeks, even though rationally I know that’s not true. I started sleeping with a pillow between my knees to see if that made me more comfortable. It helps a bit I guess, but to be honest I wasn’t that uncomfortable anyway. (Jose just suggested the pillow since he’d read about it in a book.) I think it will help more as I get even bigger.

I had a couple nights of horrible sleep last week, but that can be attributed to two nights in a row of spectacular thunderstorms. Like, “thunder so loud I would swear lightning just struck my house” kind of thunderstorms. Crazy

Movement: One of the updates I read this week says the baby gets very active at 27 weeks. Um, she’s been very active for a while now! It looks like an alien is trying to get out. I read somewhere that movement decreases a little as I go forward because she’s getting big enough that there’s not much space to move around, but I have no idea if that’s true or not. Seems reasonable, but then “they” also say you should start doing kick counts around this time to make sure you notice if there is a significant decrease. Pregnancy advice is so contradictory sometimes.

Food cravings: Ugh, I can’t really think about this one now. I did the 1-hour gestational diabetes test this morning and that glucose drink is just sitting in my stomach making me feel all gross.

Tastes like super concentrated orange gatorade.

Best moment this week? I didn’t expect anything for Mother’s Day; after all, I am not a mother yet. But I have to admit that it was kind of cool to have two random strangers (one at Goodwill, one at Spring Creek BBQ) wish me Happy Mother’s Day on Sunday. (In addition to Jose, my mom, and my mother-in-law of course.) Spring Creek even gave me a free bowl of ice cream and a carnation! Woo!

What I miss: Nothing. Pregnancy continues to treat me well.

What I’m looking forward to: More work on the baby room this weekend! On Sunday I (carefully) helped Jose move the guest room furniture into the 3rd bedroom so the guest room has officially been relocated. We also bought a gallon of paint! After much debate about various shades of light blue, we finally chose one called “river mist.” (At least I think that’s the one we chose. I can’t actually remember the name of the final choice at the moment.) So hopefully there will be some painting going on this weekend, even though how much we can do will depend on whether SpaceX launches early Saturday or not, since Jose is supporting their mission.

Milestones: So here’s the thing. Various internet weekly updates have been telling me for several weeks now that the baby can now recognize my voice. It would seem that no one really knows exactly when baby starts to recognize it. So maybe it was a month ago, or maybe it’s just this week. Who knows. Other than that, she’s working on her lungs (those things take a long time too, it seems) and her immune system. AND, she’ll open her eyes for the first time which is by far the coolest thing going on this week.

As for me, I am hoping that my belly button doesn’t pop out. It seems to be getting shallower and shallower, which is kind of fascinating, but also kind of freaky. Stay in, belly button! The interwebs also say I may be feeling Braxton-Hicks contractions by now. I don’t want to jinx anything, but I don’t think I’ve felt anything like that yet. The two symptoms I do have are both minor — some nasal congestion and sensitive gums. No big deal.