26 Weeks

The network of nerves in your baby's ears is better developed and more sensitive than before. He may now be able to hear both your voice and your partner's as you chat with each other. He's inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid, which is essential for the development of his lungs. These so-called breathing movements are also good practice for when he's born and takes that first gulp of air. And he's continuing to put on baby fat. He now weighs about a pound and two-thirds and measures 14 inches (an English hothouse cucumber) from head to heel.

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Anyone ever heard of an English hothouse cucumber? Yeah, me neither...

T was actually able to feel the baby kick last night!! I have been trying for what seems like forever to get her to do it and it wasn't one of her biggest jabs, but he was still able to feel it!! Very cool!

Last night we went to GR with my parents to celebrate T's bday early (about 3 weeks early, actually!). My parents always miss his bday because my mom goes over Thanksgiving to see my gma in Florida and my dad goes with a group of guys for a big golf vacation in Myrtle Beach. So, we went to dinner at the Grand Rapids Brewing Company - always fantastic food and I encourage you all to go (those in state, country, etc that is!) because they never seem to have much business, but they're so good and we don't want to see them close!! Then it was off to the giant baby store to pick out an off-road stroller from my gma and gpa b. My dad was absolutely amazed at all the baby crap that could fit into one gigantic store. We found a jeep one with huge tires and speakers for my ipod so baby and I can jam while we walk the road. :) Then is was on to a furniture store to pick out a new chair for our living room from my parents for Christmas. We came to the conclusion a couple weeks ago that we wanted the glider rocker that was in the living room to go into the nursery and we'd get a smaller rocker/recliner for the living room. The ottoman for the glider just took up too much room in the living room and we wanted it in the nursery. So, I had my mind set on getting a smaller recliner that rocked and was red. I wanted to brighten up the room a bit! Red!! While T, my mom and I looked around at the recliners, my dad headed to the clearance center and found exactly what we were looking for! Because it was in the clearance center, they wrapped it up and put it in the back of the expedition and it's now sitting in my living room! :) Our last stop of the evening was to T's fav ice cream place - cold stone - to pick up a cake. All in all, it was a very successful night!! :) We had a lot of fun - I like to call those kinds of days little vacations from my life. To top it all off, my sparties knocked off yet another team and are now 9-2 on the season and get a week off before heading to happy valley.

In other news... if you've noticed my baby countdown, you have seen that we're now in double digits!!! On Friday, I noticed that it was at 99 and I started freaking out a bit!! I sent T an email about all the things that we still need to get done and he didn't seem fazed a bit. I remember when I started that countdown and it was like 220 some days. Now it's under 100! Holy crap!! This all really is happening!! No turning back now!!

My last bit of news from this weekend is that we did a complete overhaul of our home office/desk area. I had intended to work on it last weekend and that just didn't happen. So, Sunday we took about 3 hours and did it. Here are the before and after pics:

In this pic you can see the mass disorganization and piles of crap everywhere.

Ahhh...This pic just makes me feel calm. Look at all that horizontal space without anything on it!!! I LOVE IT!!! And yes, we intend to keep it like this. We're instituting some new organizational rules for both of us and it's going to stay this way! The thing is, this desk is in what is now the guest bedroom and we're anticipating many houseguests to help out with the baby in the coming months, so that's really the driving force behind all this reorganization. We know that we're slobs, we just don't everyone else to find that out! :) hee hee...

Our next job is to finish the reorganization of this room and then move on to finish the rest of the nursery. My hope is to finish all reorganization/redecoration projects by the end of Christmas break. So that all of January and February until she comes can just be a nice, relaxing time! That's my plan, at least, we'll see how it goes...

My last tid bit before I sign off for the week is that we have decided on a name!! I do not want to post it here, however, if you know me well enough to have my email address, I will certainly tell you personally! :) Her name is exactly what we were searching for - different, but not too "out there", classic and old-fashioned, but still unique. I absolutely adore it and we're trying to use it to refer to her more and more.