Well, Well, Well… I am 33 weeks today and I cannot believe how fast time has gone. I swear my belly (and the baby) grew overnight which is actually quite possible. Saturday morning we woke up and Shaun looked at me and asked, “Did your belly get bigger?”. To have someone who sees me every day notice the change and ask, I know I have grown that and I can feel it too! My belly is big and I am getting more and more tired through out the day. Back to taking naps while Abby is napping! Other then that I am doing great!

Doctors appointments have become more frequent now, once every two weeks. Pretty soon I will have to go in every week. I cant believe I am to that point already! As for our little girl, here are her stats at Week 33:

• Our little girl is now about 16 to 18 inches in length and close to 5 lbs in weight.
• Movement has decreased, although more intensified for mommy because of her size. She will soon be facing head down placing more pressure on mommy’s pelvis causing her to have the pregnancy waddle.
• It is now easy for mommy to tell the difference between hands, feet, head and bum.
• Hiccups often occur more regularly and the lungs are now formed and protected enough to allow for survival if born prematurely.

Only about 7 weeks to go! I cannot wait to meet our little girl and for Abby to finally meet her new little sister. I think she will understand the idea of a baby a lot better once her sister has been born. We try and talk to her often about it, but sometimes you just have to see and experience it all for yourself to understand whats going on. I cant wait!

Here I am at 27 weeks 2 Days… its a far better picture then the last one I took, at least in my opinion it is. You can actually see the baby belly! And while it may not be noticeable to anyone else, I have grown since the last picture which was taken less then a week ago! I definitely feel pregnant.

Today I am at 27 weeks and feeling great! The baby is moving around a lot and I am feeling more and more pregnant as the days go by, but I am feeling good. There isn’t too much change that occurs, but here is what has happened with our Little Marshmallow in a weeks time!

• Our little Marshmallow now weighs over 2lbs and has stayed around the same length.
• Although wrinkled the skin continues to move from translucent to opaque and our little one begins to look like the baby we will see at birth.
• Our Little Marshmallow’s eyelashes are growing in.

As a little factoid that I thought was funny… Did you know that the jelly the covers and protects the umbilical cord from tearing when it twists around called Wharton’s Jelly? Interesting if you ask me!

Well I am now at 26 weeks! I am feeling great too! The hip and leg issues that I had been having seemed to have worked themselves out. They generally only return if I physically over exert myself. I also seem to have the occasional pregnancy insomnia but its nothing that I cannot handle. The same thing happened with Abby and I just make sure to take the time to take a nap during the day. Other then that I am great.

The Little Marshmallow is doing great, moving often and with more force. I had another check up and glucose test yesterday and everything looks great. I was able to get my OB to do an ultrasound in office, but nothing came of it. The Little Marshmallow still has his or hers legs crossed and refused to move. Every time she tried to get a view from the front the little one would move its head into our view. Oh well, what can you do! The important thing is that the Little Marshmallow is healthy and doing well! We will have our official third trimester ultrasound soon, so hopefully we will know then.

At 26 weeks, these are the changes that have occured. Lots of growing happening!

• At 26 weeks the little Marshmallow is about 14.5 inches long and weighs about 2 pounds. From this point, until about 36 weeks, our little one will begin to pack on the weigh and grow exponentially.
• Our Little Marshmallows bones continue with the ossification process, which means they continue to harden.
• Our Little Marshmallows veins can now be seen through the skin, although at this point the skin begins to change from transparent to opaque.
• Hearing is now well developed and our little one can now hear noises around them, both inside and outside of the uterus. The baby may begin to respond to loud noises outside of the uterus and is learning the sound of mommy and daddy’s voice.
• The uterus now also allows some light in, giving our little one the ability to see light and dark. Some babies may even turn to face the sun when mom is outside for longer periods of time.

So much is happening and changing, its incredible! Only 14 more weeks and our Little Marshmallow will be here. Its hard to imagine. It feels like just yesterday I found out that I was pregnant. Time flies, but I am doing my best to make sure that I enjoy every moment of it.

Today I am officially 24 weeks along and doing great! I had a doctors appointment yesterday and as it has been since the beginning, everything looks great! I was measured to make sure that I am growing well, and I am. Gotta make sure there is plenty of room in there for the Little Marshmallow to grow! Dr. Olender also listened to our Little Marshmallows heartbeat which sounds great and strong! She definitely had to do some chasing around before she was able to listen long enough to get a calculated heart rate, the little one doesn’t like to sit still!

At 24 weeks, here are some of the changes that take place with our little marshmallow:

• Our Little Marshmallow is now about 13 and 1/2 inches long and weighs about 1 pound 8 ounces.
• Our little ones ears and fingernails have finished growing and developing and he or she now has a distinct set of fingerprints.
• He or she is almost completely formed and will now begin to deposit brown fat which is needed to retain body heat after birth.
• Our Little Marshmallow is also beginning to use his or her hands and feet to explore tactile sensations.

I will be going in in several weeks for my third trimester GTC test and I am hoping that at this point an ultrasound can be done to determine the sex of our baby. I wanted to do one in office at this last appointment, but the one time I am hoping to do something my OB is stuck over at the hospital for a patients delivery and was just walking in as I arrived. She had 5 patients backed up before me and then several after me so there wasn’t time for one. Oh well, I am ok with the idea that if I am not meant to know until the last ultrasound then so be it! Until then, I wait and enjoy every minute of my pregnancy and life in general.

Today I am 23 weeks exactly. Its amazing how things change in a weeks time. I am definitely beginning to show more and the little marshmallow moves a lot more too. Especially when I lay down. Over the weekend I was having some pain in one area of my back and Shaun helped me by rubbing it. The minute he put pressure in a very particular spot, where most of the discomfort was, the little marshmallow moved like crazy! I have a feeling he or she was hanging out near by lower back and was just causing some discomfort there.

At 23 weeks, the following changes have occurred in our Little Marshmallow:

• During this week our little ones lungs will develop rapidly, preparing for life on the “outside”. During this development the lungs produce surfactant which lines the air sacs of the lungs, and blood vessels in the lungs continue to grow.
• Our little one will now start making breathing movements that are trial runs for later on.
• Our baby looks like a baby now, but is slender and delicate looking. The skin is loose, thin and wrinkled and will remain that way until fat production catches up with skin production.
• Our little ones fingernails are now fully formed and he or she weighs about 1 pound 2 ounces.

By next week there will be even bigger changes! Hopefully I can also get my OB to do an in office ultrasound so that we can find out the sex of the baby! We shall see, our fingers are crossed.

Well as I said yesterday, the ultrasound determined that my predicted due date of July 6th was spot on. Way to go Dr. Olender! My OB did several very early ultrasounds in the office but because they were done so early in the pregnancy, she was still a little “if-y” as to how accurate the date was. So with that said, I am now 22 weeks pregnant.

At 22 weeks, our Little Marshmallow is now about 7-11 inches long and weighs close to 1 pound (about 15 ounces). Based on the movement I am feeling, you would think he or she weighs 7 pounds! Some other tidbits of development during this week:

• At this point our little one as grown eyebrows
• The senses of taste and touch are making great strides in developing. Taste buds are beginning to form and the brain and nerve endings are developed enough to process the sensation of touch
• Reproductive organs are continuing to develop.

I always read about these fun development facts with Abby but never shared them. I thought I would start doing that now! The next few weeks are so very important in development and the last big hurdle before the home stretch.

I am definitely beginning to feel more and more pregnant and I am starting to feel the big changes in my body. After the ultrasound, I needed help sitting up on the table for the first time. I am quickly losing my ability to use my stomach muscles. I have also had some issues with my hips, but the same thing happened last time as well. Sleep has become more elusive mainly because finding a comfortable position is getting hard to do. I am a stomach sleeper and well lets face it, I am to the point where sleeping on my stomach isn’t possible and bothers me to no end because I feel like I am crushing the baby (even though I am not).

All in all things are changing but despite some of the inconveniences, I am loving every minute of it! I love being pregnant and even more so, I love the end result!

If its a lesson in modesty you are looking for, just ask the unborn. To be specific, ask our Little Marshmallow and he or she will teach you! Today was our second trimester ultrasound and today was the day we were to find out the sex of our newest addition to the family.

Going into the ultrasound I was nervous and excited. Our wonderful tech began and the first thing we took a look at was the heart. Shaun had the chance to hear the heart beat for the first time, which was very special and based on what they could see… everything was great. For the next little bit, time was spent taking measurements to make sure our baby was growing at the proper rate and to see if our due date was correct. She measured the baby’s head, arms, heart, spine, legs and plenty more. When it came to the legs, our little one would not cooperate! One was in perfect view to be measured while the other was tucked up and crossed over the other. After moving on to something else, in hopes that our baby would move a bit, our tech went back and was able to get a good measurement. Once all of the measurements were done, they were averaged and we came to find out that my OB was spot on ( or as spot on as you can be as its not an exact science) with our due date of July 6th!

After all the measurements were done and we ” OOOOOOed and Awwwwwed” at all of the cool things they can do with one machine, it was time to look at the sex of our baby. Are we having a boy or a girl? I couldn’t have been more excited! And then, as the tech got the best view possible (a shot of our baby’s rear end looking up) not a thing could be seen! Our Little Marshmallow had his or her legs pressed so tightly together that it was impossible to see anything. Our tech wiggled things around trying to get our little one to move. She even had the doctor take a stab at it after he finished looking over the ultrasound pictures. Not a thing! Our baby would not show off the goods! Both the tech and the doctor were surprised and told us that this rarely happens in their office. Maybe they just get lucky, but it certainly wasn’t going to happen for us today. So alas, our Little Marshmallow remains a mystery. Luckily everything looked great and our baby appears to be very healthy. I have been told that I can ask my OB to do another ultrasound in office, so hopefully in two weeks from today things will have changed a bit and the mystery can be solved! Until then, please enjoy a few snapshots of our little one at 21 weeks and 6 days young!