26 Weeks

How far along? 26 weeks, 1 day

How big is baby? About the size of a head of lettuce

Total weight gain: 14 pounds at my last appointment. I haven’t been keeping track on our scale at home.

Maternity clothes? Fully into maternity clothes. I found out the other day that our new-semi-permanent jeans policy is back to business casual – arrgh – so guess who gets to try to find maternity work pants this weekend? Can you sense my excitement at the prospect? (By which I mean the complete lack thereof…)

Stretch marks? No new ones this week.

Exercise? Yes! Mike and I went for a walk twice this week. One night we ventured out to a trail at a local park and I walked almost a mile. I realize that sounds pathetic, but I was pretty proud of myself.

Sleep: It feels like it is improving some nights – I’m not waking up in the middle of the night as much and I’m not feeling completely exhausted when I wake up in the morning.

Movement: He is definitely moving around more overall, though still seems to be in a pattern of being very active for a couple days and then quiet for a day or two. So far, he is still a night owl!

Several times this week I was in work meetings and he started up Dance Party 101. It’s hysterical!

He also seems to really like yogurt. A couple of times when I’ve eaten yogurt he’s moved around soon afterwards. Not sure what the correlation is? Doesn’t seem to happen when I eat other sweets, like a cookie or ice cream.

Food Oddities: (Renaming this category since it’s been pretty status quo) I love the tubes of mini M&Ms and also made the mistake of buying a bag of Cheetos at the grocery. I seriously can’t keep my hands out of them.

Perhaps the strangest thing is my new favorite breakfast – a packet of Quaker Strawberries & Cream instant oatmeal. I’ve found that it does a pretty good job of keeping me full most of the morning. The reason it’s strange is because I really don’t like oatmeal and never have.

Gender: It’s a BOY!!

Labor Signs: Nope.

Symptoms: This is the THIRD good week in a row!!

What people are saying: Nothing much new this week, but it’s been a short week and a quiet one at work.

Sweet Moments: Mike and I have enjoyed bonding with the baby. We talk to him all the time, and now that he’s moving more I feel like Mike can “participate” more – he rubs my belly all the time.

My favorites are the conversations Mike has with him about “not kicking Mommy all night long” followed the next morning by, “Did the baby listen to me last night and sleep quietly?”

Make room for baby: I ordered a couple of BabyGap onesies for him that are absolutely adorable – can’t wait for them to arrive! My favorite one has a gold crown on it and the words “King of the Castle.”

I also purchased a changing table. Not sure if it will work yet...we’ll have to see once it arrives. Online it appears to complement his crib pretty well.

Miss Anything? Being able to put on my outfit and go. Right now my morning routine includes an extra 5 minutes to put on my support hose, which sounds trivial except for the fact that I’m slower than a snail in the morning. It’s a perpetual: “I’m just about on time this morning…crap…have to put my feet on…”

Looking forward to: Doesn’t Christmas start in July? For the first time ever, I want the Christmas stuff out early so I can pick out a miniature Christmas outfit for baby boy.

Worst/most embarrassing moment this week: None that I can think of, though realizing just how much childcare is going to cost wasn’t exactly up there on the “stellar moments of pregnancy” list.

Best moment this week: Being able to see and feel him move with much more “oomph” than I’ve seen yet.