28 Weeks

I missed last week's update and belly shot because we were up on Mackinac Island for four days.  I even forgot to get a good profile shot of my belly.  I had just mentioned to Jeremy that we couldn't forget to take one when we got to a pretty spot, but then I walked up 304 stairs, so my only thoughts were death and I forgot all about it.  But I did get some shots that give you a pretty good idea of how big I was.  These were all taken on Friday, when I was one day away from 27 weeks:

The baby makes her first visit to Arch Rock

Beautiful weather for our 8-mile bike ride around the Island!

I felt the need to pose for Tommy's camera.  One of my friends said the caption for this picture is "I'm too sexy for my belly!"

I am wearing HEELS in this picture!  So stupid!

We all had loads of fun, but unfortunately, I was a big buzzkill.  The day before we left, I was working and packing and cleaning and preparing directions for the dog/cat/housesitter from 7 AM until 2 AM ... and then I looked at my feet.  They were bigger than I had ever seen them, and my body told me there was no way it would allow me to sleep with my feet elevated while I laid on my side (per doctor's orders), so I went to bed and hoped for the best.  I woke up four hours later to leave and, surprise, surprise -- they looked about the same.  Then we spent 3 hours in the car, half an hour on the ferry and then started a vacation that included a lot of walking, standing, and socializing.  So, basically, my feet never had a chance to return to normal, and I walked around getting shocked looks from people when they saw that my ankles were bigger than my knees and my swollen feet were jammed into dress shoes like ten pounds of sausage in five pounds of casing.

So, I was pretty lame, complained about it, and put my feet up on people's laps whenever I got five minutes to do so.  At one point, I went into my mom and dad's suite and she had some friends I had never met hanging out in the sitting room.  I plopped my feet on her lap and they both gasped.  The husband said "Is there anything we can do for you??" and the wife immediately ran back to her room and got a tube a cooling lotion to use on my feet.  She even insisted that I keep it because I needed it more than she did!  

Also, I don't know why, but the beds killed me this year.  I have stayed in this hotel for years and years, and usually I wake up feeling rested and ready to take on the day.  They are very nice mattresses.  This year, the same bed I slept in last year felt like a torture device and I woke up every morning exhausted and with every muscle in my body aching.  On the last night, my arms were actually going numb because of the knots in my back, and instead of letting Jeremy drink and party with everyone else, I insisted on an hour-long back rub because I was certain I was about to die.  So ... sorry fellow travelers!!  And especially Jeremy. :(

Well, that was a big re-cap, but now here we are at TWENTY EIGHT WEEKS!!!  I am offically seven months pregnant and in my (drumroll) ... THIRD TRIMESTER!!!  

Look how big she is!!

This week our amazing baby has probably reached two and a half pounds and could be as long as 16 inches!  Along with being able to cough, hiccup, suck, and take practice breaths, she can now blink and experiences Rapid Eye Movement when she sleeps!  Thankfully, her lungs are fully mature at this point, which is the milestone I was waiting for with bated breath.  Although she would still need a LOT of help if she were born at this point, she is out of the "danger zone."

It hit me in the shower this morning that it was my third trimester and I frantically started listing all the things we have yet to do (because we had SO MUCH time) like finding a pediatrician, pre-registering at the hospital, and taking a childbirth class.  Of course, when I freaked out, Jeremy just patted my hand and told me we couldn't do ALL of those things today, so we will sit down tomorrow and make a schedule of when to get those things accomplished in the next month.  What a guy.

Tonight I am off to a Girls Night with some old friends from high school.  We'll see how the baby likes the car trip from Rochester Hills and back.  She has been giving me some trouble to and from work lately.  I often have to lean really far to the right so the pain in my left side will go away. Oh well, I have a lot of working left to do and that means a lot more driving, so we will both just have to get used to it.

My ligament pain has also returned with a vengeance, at exactly the same time when I am having a hard time hauling myself in and out of certain positions.  At night, I usually wake up about ten times, whimpering because the hip I'm laying on hurts so bad.  When I have heaved myself halfway to the other side, my ligaments stretch and I feel like someone is stabbing me under my belly, so I flop back down.  It can take a few tries to roll over now, and all the while I am grunting.  Of course, Jeremy sleeps right through this.  I am going to need a system of pulleys and levers soon! :)

I guess I never appreciated being able to just get up off the couch or go from sitting on the floor to standing or roll over in bed without effort and embarrassment.  I will cherish when I am able to again! :)

A few big achievements also took place this week.  The baby has been SO ACTIVE and sometimes I feel like she is beating me up in there, but every time I put someone else's hand where she was moving, she would instantly freeze, then the second they gave up and moved their hand and I put mine back, she would go bonkers again.  Sigh.  She also moves so much now that I see my belly moving like an alien movie all the time.  I even freaked a student out in the Writing Center because she was doing it, but Jeremy couldn't see it.  But THIS week, Jeremy felt TONS of hard kicks AND saw my belly moving around!  AND I finally found the baby's heartbeat and put Jeremy's hand on it ... and he FELT IT!!!  It has been a good week! :)