26 weeks down, 14 to go

Little Adeline has made it to 26 weeks and is going strong. 26 weeks is somewhat of a milestone – at this point, if Adeline was born today she would have an 80-90% survival rate, with a 10-20% chance of long term complications, even though she’s only 2 lbs! Isn’t modern medicine amazing? In just 2 more weeks she’ll have over a 90% survival rate with only a 10% chance of long term complications – full term babies have a 95% survival rate, and 5% chance of long term problems.

In that case, who needs the last 14 weeks? (kidding)

Adeline’s been kicking quite a bit lately and she’s definitely getting stronger, because the kicks are getting harder. Last night when I was laying in bed, Adeline did something that made me realize I’m still boggled by the idea of a human being growing inside me - she must have completely flipped her body to the other side and pushed her head up on my uterus while doing so, because what happened was I felt her push up, and then I watched this lump make it’s way across my belly from left to right. It kind of freaked me out. It’s easy to write off her jabs and kicks as gas or funny stomach issues or whatever, but when you see something like that, it’s hard to mistake that for anything else but a baby. Or alien.

I’ve also gained about 9 lbs at this point. One thing I’ve heard this past week:

“You’re still so small! Are you going to have like a 4 lb baby or something?!”

So for all you “concerned” people out there allow me to set the record straight – my baby house is just as big as all those other pooh bear looking mommas, imagine that. I’m measuring right on target at every appointment. In fact, my Dr. even said I was “getting quite a belly!” BAM! Anyway, she said the difference is that I have strong stomach muscles that just keep my soccer ball inside me, and not sticking out in front. That’s all. As for the 9 lb weight gain, most Moms have gained about 20-22 lbs at this point, but if the baby is growing on track, there’s no need to gain extra weight. She thinks I will probably end up with a 15-20 lb weight gain by the time I give birth, which is fine. She said, and I quote, “There’s no need to eat for two.” In fact, she said if I start eating more and the baby plumps up to 9 or 10 lbs, I will not be having this baby naturally. And then we hated on her last patient, who gained 10 lbs in the past month (my Dr's awesome). Touche beeches.

I feel very lucky to have had an easy pregnancy up until this point, besides some nausea in the beginning. I can only hope the next 3 months go as well as the first 6 have. And I better not suddenly pack on 20 lbs this last trimester or I’ll be pissed.