Baby bump - 26 weeks

This is the last week of my second trimester - at 27 weeks I'll be officially in the third trimester! The little guy enjoys kicking me all throughout the day and night. Pretty soon I'll have to count the number of fetal movements in an hour and make sure he's sufficiently active. My eyes have been getting dry and irritated at night, but I've read that is normal.

The generic weekly email I get says he is weighing around 2 pounds and the size of 3 russet potatoes. Average length is 13-14 inches.

It still amazes me that a big ol' baby this size is swimming around inside me!

Earlier this week I preregistered downstairs at the medical facility where I work. Our situation is a little complicated since technically I am a contractor here and my insurance prefers the other facility across town. I managed to get an insurance waiver (cross your fingers that my workplace honors this & writes off the difference in cost!) and the admitting girls worked hard to make sure all my info was entered correctly. Now all we have to do is go straight to Labor & Delivery when our baby is ready to arrive.

I DO NOT want to give birth at the other place across town (although it is where I was born waaaay back in '77). The place is a baby factory - churning out at least 2x the number of babies that my workplace does. You can't labor & deliver in the same room and most of the aftercare suites require moms to share a room with another woman (and share a bathroom - yuck!) Here at my facility you labor & deliver in the same private room, and then the baby goes with you to a private recuperation room on the Mother/Baby unit. The other facility does have a higher-level NICU than we do, so if anything goes wrong I will have no choice but to admit there.

I made an appointment with a well-respected pediatrician practice on December 2nd. There are two docs and two nurse practitioners, and I will meet with each of the docs that morning to see if they are a good fit. A couple people I know use these pediatricians for their kids and one of the physicians even has a radio show on the Alaska NPR station.

Busy Sunday

Our first major snowfall arrived this weekend, specifically early Sunday morning. I usually avoid driving on the first snow day but I had made plans to meet a friend at Babies R Us. She walked me through the store and helped identify items I should (and shouldn't) register for, which was supremely helpful! She has two little boys and I really appreciated her expertise.

Afterwards I scooted home for a bit and then prepared for my first prenatal yoga class. It was a good experience - lots of mamas in the class at varying stages of pregnancy. I really worked up a sweat throughout the 90-minute session. Will probably attend next Sunday as well. I expected to feel sore afterwards but so far no pain!