27 Weeks

This week, www.babycenter.com says that Baby Helms weighs almost 2 pounds (compare to a head of cauliflower) and is about 14.5 inches long with her legs extended. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, the baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning—with a lot of medical help—if she were to be born now. Apparently any tiny rhythmic movements I might feel are most likely a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Pretty crazy. I guess each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother the baby.

As for me, I'm feeling fine. I deal with the occasional bout of heartburn and have been experiencing a bit of back pain (in one centralized location) some evenings lately, but I can't really complain -- I've pretty much sailed through this so far, and am really enjoying being pregnant.

We are headed to North Carolina tomorrow and will spend the weekend in Charlotte and the High Point area. Jarrett's mom is throwing us our first baby shower on Saturday afternoon, which should be a lot of fun. There will be a lot of family and family friends there, I'm sure, and our good friends, Erin and Jason, are making the drive down from Raleigh, which will be a lot of fun since we haven't seen them in quite some time.