T minus 13 weeks!

27 Weeks - How your baby's growing (from babycenter.com):

This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with his legs extended. He's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing his eyes, and perhaps even sucking his fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While his lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if he were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother him, so just relax and enjoy the tickle.

(Let me tell everyone...this boy can pack a punch! I've been watching him kick and punch my belly for weeks now. And I can't decide if he's being shy or a trickster - he will kick endlessly and as soon as I put Drew's hand on my belly to feel he will stop. I personally think he is playing with his Daddy :) Drew and I have been reading to him almost every night, hoping these things will comfort him once he's here.)

It has been a while since I've updated, so I figured I would take a minute during the last week of my second trimester (hallelujah!) Granted, I can already feel that third trimester. I've been so exhausted. And stressed. Hayden and I have had an interesting week. To explain all of this, I'll have to backtrack a little. At my past few doctor's appointments my blood pressure has been up. My doctor's were keeping a close eye on it. Well, this week the combination of exhausted, tension, and everything else caught up with me. I had a nagging tension headache and was seeing bright spots all day on Thursday. My doctor had told me to call if I ever experienced that. So, I did and they brought me in on Friday to check on my blood pressure. We had a long, long doctor's appointment yesterday. They checked my blood pressure, took blood to check for liver function, did a stress test on the baby (...which I loved hearing his heartbeat for twenty minutes straight :)) and told me I have to collect urine samples for 24 hours to check for preeclampsia. The baby's stress test was great, which was my main concern. The blood work will come back this coming week, but in the meantime he told me to stop working and keep my feet up as much as possible. As with any pregnancy, the less stress the better. Thankfully, I have an amazing and hardworking husband that will work endlessly so that I don't have to and can focus on taking care of Hayden. I am so blessed and lucky to have him and our families - who are also a great support system. So, I am doing exactly what he's telling me to (which is probably why I have time to update this blog!) But the baby is great, so I am great.

My doctor also finally convinced me (after two appointments..) to get my flu shot. The thought of it scared me beyond belief. I am a natural worrier, though. I went to Walgreens which was the only drug store here that offered a preservative free flu shot. In fact, they won't give pregnant women anything but a presevative free flu shot. The different between a regular flu shot and a preservative free flu shot is the thimerosal aka mercury. I was not comfortable with the regular flu shot which has 25 micrograms of thirmerosal. The preservative free flu shot has less than 1 microgram of thimerosal. Granted, I wasn't aware of any of this until I started to do some research online. The internet is such a bittersweet thing for me. While it can be so informative, it can also scare the living daylights out of me. There is just that much information out there. But, I definitely don't want to come down with the flu while I'm pregnant and I definitely want to protect Hayden since he will be born right in the middle of flu season. It seemed like the best choice for us, so my mom and I both got the shot at the same time. I'm very happy that I did because now I can stop worrying so much about it.

Besides my mood swings (poor, poor Drew!), that's about all that's been going on. We have a 3D ultrasound coming up on October 26. I can't wait to see his sweet face! We have also officially (really..it's been engraved on a Christmas ornament) decided on the name Hayden Noah. I am getting my honey-do and mom-please-help-me-do lists ready for things that need to be done before he gets here. I have 4 pages so far. But, what mother doesn't want everything to be perfect for their child? :)