This is a double week post, since I didn't post about last week in our pregnancy! But it's because we had a good 2 weeks and my body cooperated, so that we were able to accomplish a lot. I guess that in itself is testament to the fact that this pregnancy is going well. 

How Far Along: Recapping weeks 26 and 27! (Picture in the striped shirt taken at 26 weeks 6 days pregnant, and the picture in the magenta shirt taken at 27 weeks 6 days pregnant).

How I'm Feeling This Week: Both week 26 and week 27 were good weeks for me. Peaceful sleep, very few contractions, no complaints here! 

Braxton Hicks Contractions: Very few both weeks! Made our life so much easier, and we were able to do normal life activities.

Aversions: None this week! 

Pregnancy Symptoms: 
•bleeding gums when I brush 
•vivid dreams 
•dark hair on my belly 
•light heartburn
•darkened areola
•bigger breasts (not as fun as you'd think!)

New symptom that I noticed in week 27: The linea nigra line, or as I like to call it, my tiger stripe! It is a line that follows the center of my belly from my waist up to my bellybutton and continues going up my belly. Nick says it's been there for a few weeks already, but I couldn't see it because it is only on the underside of my belly so far. It's very faint, but from past experience, I know it will darken and continue to rise above my belly button in the next few weeks, staying for a few months after I give birth.

Doctor/Midwife Appointment: We had an appointment with our midwife in week 26, at 26 weeks 6 days pregnant. My fundal height, measuring from my pubic bone to the top of my uterus, was right on the date it should be for this point in the pregnancy. The baby's heartbeat was strong, and just like last month's visit, we couldn't get an accurate reading for the heartbeat. The baby was so active that sometimes his/her heartbeat was in the 130's, and other times it was in the 170's. It's the strangest thing, because this never happened in our other pregnancies.

17P: Had my seventh and eigth 17P shots these weeks. The shots have not been painful at all lately, and no side effects either. I had no discomfort, no muscle pain, and no itchiness. These shots are for progesterone, helping my horomones balance better to hopefully carry this baby to full term (37 weeks).

Weight Gain So Far: After having two weeks of insane hunger strikes, my body finally was satiated. I've eaten a normal amount of food for the last two weeks, and even had days where I was hardly hungry at all. I still ate, of course, to make sure the baby gets enough nutrition, but it was weird that I didn't feel like eating some days.

Since I'm at the end of the second trimester, I should be consuming more calories to accomodate the speedy growth of our baby. I'm eating about 2,250 calories each day, and I'm using the My Fitness Pal app. to help me keep track of my eating habits. 

If you'd like to see my diet, you can look me up and I'll add you on my friends list. I'm listed as horseopeaceranch. 
For the second trimester I'm supposed to add only 300 extra calories to my regular diet each day, which translates to about one banana and a glass of milk. None of this "eating for two" business!

Starting Weight: 119 lbs. 
Week 26 Weight: 133 lbs.
Week 27 Weight: 133 lbs.
Goal Weight Range For This Pregnancy: High: 154 lbs. Low: 144 lbs.

Food Cravings: Week 26: Peanut butter and banana smoothies. SO delicious! I would put 2 frozen bananas in the blender with 3 tablespoons of natural, unsweetened peanut butter, and it would be like soft serve peanut butter ice cream. Except healthy!

Week 27: Lemon flavored frozen snacks. Like these Outshine bars. I found the lemon yogurt bars to be low in calories (80 calories per bar) and really refreshing. Since I went shopping by myself, I ate two on the way home! They took my craving away immediately.

Regular or Maternity Clothes: All maternity bottoms now, and some regular sized shirts. The shirts I ordered from Walmart.com arrived, and they sent me two wrong shirts, and two shirts correctly from my order. The correct shirts fit perfectly and made me feel so comfortable! I returned the other two since they didn't fit me right (they weren't maternity, and not the type of shirt I'd wear non-pregnant).

Starting to Show: Yes. Makes me feel very self concious.

Boy or Girl: Nick has known for about 2 months now. It's not been hard at all for me to wait to find out. Sure, I get a little curious, but it's not a got-to-find-out-or-I'll-die-from-the-suspense kind of curious. Still is a little weird between us that he knows and I don't, but it's one more way that I see our individual personalities showing in our marriage.

Baby's Chance of Survival this Week: Week 26: 80%-90%. Week 27: 90% 

Baby Movement: It's becoming easier for me to notice this baby's patterns of movement through the days. The baby moves soon after I wake up, a little in the afternoon, and a LOT in the evening around 9:30pm., and then a little more when I go to bed soon after. I like when the baby kicks if I'm holding one of his/her brothers on my lap, or he/she will kick Nick when we are snuggling together.

Size of Baby: Week 26: Baby was 1 2/3 lbs. and 14" long. Week 27: Up to 2 lbs and 14 1/2" long. About the size of a head of cauliflower.

What I Did to Prepare for Baby's Arrival: Nothing in week 26. Week 27 I began to look through our baby girl clothes, and realized that I basically have 2 outfits that might get us through part of the first night. The rest of the stash was going to be too big for a newborn. Well, I have plenty of gender neutral clothes and lots of boy clothes, but if this baby is a girl, I'm going to want to see some pink! So basically, Nick will need to do some shopping to make sure I have more clothes ready, and he'll have to keep them in a place well hidden, if Baby #4 is a girl.

Pregnancy Thoughts this Week: Basically, my thoughts in the last two weeks have turned to ways I want to clean the house, or sort stuff that we need to put away/give away. And Nick's been getting into it too, listing things we want to get rid of on Craigslist or Ebay. It feels good to lighten the load in our house, if only a little bit.