I decided to take full body pictures that show the growth of my belly and thought I would share.

Here's an update on our baby this week, the 27th week:

Our baby weighs more than 2 pounds, measures 9.6 inches from crown to rump and her total length is about 15.3 inches. If our baby was born now, she would have about an 85 percent chance of surviving. Nonetheless, our baby still needs another 13 weeks of in utero development to be considered full term.

Our baby's eyes, no longer fused shut, are now open.

Our baby's skin still has a very wrinkled appearance, but it is protected and nourished by the covering of vernix, a waxy coating that keeps the skin supple.

Our baby looks almost like a full term baby, but is still much thinner and smaller than she will be at birth.

Posted By Lucia

I updated the nursery design, if you are interested. This is what has changed:

• the crib and dresser links show what we ordered, which is different from what we thought we were going to get.
• the fabric shown in the bumper and crib skirt link has been updated. I am still somewhat undecided on the trim for the crib skirt and bumper. I think I may need to wait until we get the crib to see how much of the skirt will show before I make a decision.

Posted By Lucia

Over the Christmas holidays, the "countdown until baby" reached the double digits (today we are only 95 days from the due date, compared to the ~ 260 days that we started with). A small milestone, but it means we are getting that much closer to meeting our little girl.

We have finally started to get ready for the baby physically.

• The room that will be the nursery was cleared of guest room furniture. However, in an attempt to declutter the rest of the house and to organize our files/stuff/junk, the nursery floor is now a temporary shelter to many items that are looking for a home ("home" choices: a file folder, a box and into storage, the trash or Salvation Army). At the beginning of the month, we already donated $400+ to the Salvation Army. Looks like I might make a second trip with more donated goods based on what I see on the floor of the nursery.
• We added the functionality of "guest room" to my office and we were even able to keep the elliptical machine in the office/guest room. It's a tight squeeze, but it works. Setting up the new office/guest room included painting two walls in the room.
• We ordered the crib, dresser, glider and gliding ottoman. The furniture should arrive end of January or beginning of February so we have until then to declutter the nursery and get it painted.
• Fabric has been selected for the crib bedding and curtains. Some has even been purchased.
• Paint colors have been finalized, although we haven't purchased it yet.
• We've purchased some small items for the nursery, but have many more to get.

STATUS OF THE PREGNANCY:

Everything is going pretty good with the pregnancy. It's harder than I thought it would be, but still something that I am enjoying.

I don't feel the baby kick as I imagined I would. I'm sure as the weeks go on and her space gets tighter that I will feel her more. The movement I do feel is a rolling sensation. Jonathan finally felt her with his hand on my stomach and just last week I could see my stomach move when she moved.

My gag reflex is very strong and easily triggered. I sometimes have problems using public restrooms and gag while I'm in there (praying that I don't get sick). I have to be quick brushing my teeth. If something hits me wrong and I happen to start gagging then there's a pretty good chance I'll get sick (which has happened twice in the last month).

I thought I fixed the issue I was having with tachycardia (rapidly beating heart), but the last couple of days proved me wrong. I have had to lie/sit down a few times daily to stop from feeling light headed. This started happening the beginning of October and I was told by my OB that it was a normal pregnancy symptom.

At my last appointment (12/2), my OB said I was slightly anemic and prescribed me iron pills. I didn't start taking them right away because (1) I had forgotten to take my prenatal the night before my OB appointment, so I thought my "slight anemia" could have been because of my forgetfulness in taking the prenatal; and (2) I felt like I was being inundated with pills (I had a root canal done and was taking 4 antibiotic pills a day; plus the prenatal and I was taking another pill); and I couldn't keep up with yet another pill; AND there are a lot of rules with taking the iron pill -- have to sit up for 30 minutes afterward, if you have eaten certain foods (wheat, cereal, milk, wheat, eggs), then you can't take the pill for 2 hours, and after you take the pill you can't eat certain foods for an hour. After having more dizziness and which causes me to feel woozy, I did some research online and asked a doctor friend and it turns out that anemia can increase your heart rate. After learning that, I started taking the pills right away. Adding the iron pills to my diet fixed my problem initially, except that the last couple of days say differently. I will mention the tachycardia again to my OB at my appointment next week to see if she thinks there is anything to be worried about. I would think she would be concerned about a resting heart rate of 150/bpm (which is what I have tracked my resting heart rate to be a couple of times in the last week). My resting heart rate prepregnancy was around 70/bpm. We shall see though.

Posted By Lucia

It has been almost 4 weeks since I last took a picture of my ever growing mid section. I know I can see (and feel) a big difference between the last picture (taken 12/2) and today's picture. I think my belly button is getting very close to popping out. I should have known that would happen since I had an outie when I was little.

Posted By Lucia

Shortened list of possible names for our baby girl:

• Annabelle (Bella/Annie)
• Gabrielle (Gabby)
• Mallory
• Paige
• Sabrina

I know that we have plenty of time to make up our mind. However, the more names we can mark off the list now, the easier it will be later.

Posted By Lucia