27 weeks

Baby bless now weighs more than 2 lbs (!), measures 9.6 inches from crown to rump and his total length is about 15.3 inches. If Baby bless were born now, he would have about an 85% chance of surviving with the help of my great friend Nancy at Children's NICU. She provides care, successfully, to preemies everyday who are growing earlier and earlier in comparison to where our little guy is at developmentally. Nonetheless, he still needs another 13 weeks of in utero development to be considered full term, which I'm completely okay with!

His beautiful eyes, no longer fused shut, are now open . . . here's hoping they're blue like mine! His 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. He looks almost like a full term baby, but is still much thinner and smaller than he will be at birth. For comparison sake, I googled 26-27 week preemies. It's shocking to think that such a developed little being is in my body right now. You'd think I'd be over it by now, but no, not really.

Apparently my cholesterol levels may be elevated, though this is usually normal in late pregnancy as cholesterol helps build up the pregnancy hormones that are being produced by the placenta. Of those hormones, progesterone is particularly important right now as it aids breast development {joy!} and the muscles of the uterus.

My boobs now touch my stomach when I bend over. Very disconcerting. I also have a very odd pain in my pelvic area. If I think too much about it I'm convinced it's a blood clot, but it feels more like an enlarged gland? I'm not a doctor, I shouldn't play like one.

So long as Baby bless isn't born before April 26th, I'll qualify for short-term disability! Unfortunately, I'm not covered by FMLA, so my leave will hopefully be a short 6 weeker if I have a normal delivery.

I had my glucose test on Friday. Thankfully I had the choice between the trash talked orange flavor and the better reviewed lemon lime flavor. It was well chilled and went down pretty easily. The good news is that I passed! No gestastional diabetes for us . . . but the cut off was 140, and I barely scraped by at 136. Also disappointing, big gulp here, I'm up 21 lbs. I was really hoping for 25, but to be starting the 3rd trimester 4 lbs away from my goal, knowing that most of my weight gain in the 3rd is supposed to be all baby, I don't have much hope.

For a better topic, I'd like to switch to the baby bedding! I |think| this is what we're going to go with for design and layers. On the backside there will be a navy blue quilted material. What do you guys think?