26 weeks!! (and counting...)

Again, I am so very busy (okay, okay....you got me. I'm just lazy and a bit of a procrastinator at times...) So let's get on with it!!

Ladies and gentlemen, Gabriel now weighs TWO POUNDS!! This is just an estimate, of course, but holy crud! He measures in at 9+ inches long at this point--kiddo's gettin' big! Another momentous event this week: his eyes are beginning to open! For the past few months, his eyelids have been fused so the retina (the part of the eye that allows images to come into focus) could develop. No guess on his eye color yet, though, because the iris still doesn't have much pigmentation. But still!! Gabe can SEE now!! Not that there's much to look at yet, but he will respond more to bright lights. That along with his heightened sense of hearing should bring a little more activity--not that he isn't super active as it is!!--to my abdomen. Speaking of which, he is starting to settle into a bit of a routine--a wake/sleep cycle. He'll be super chill for a few hours and then punching and kicking away for a while. It was pretty sporadic up until now--never a predictable pattern. So yeah--Gabriel can see (though some of the sources disagree on that for the moment), hear, taste, and feel, and his brain wave patterns should be similar to those of a newborn. He's so awesome!

Now, some of the sources (and when I say that, I mean "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and other various articles and books from doctors and similar professionals in the baby/pregnancy world) say that I can "bid my second trimester adieu" this week, others say after week 27. I'm just gonna go with WTE on this one--so my seventh month and third trimester start on week 28.

Anyway...this past week threw a few punches (as usual), but it's all good. I guess I should just be counting my blessings. I am pretty happy in general, I'm healthy, Gabriel is healthy, I have a job and a car and a place to live/sleep and food to eat--so that makes me better off than a lot of people! It's hard not to think about some of the negative, though, especially when it's particularly heartbreaking. But that's life I guess. It's not always rainbows and butterflies. And like I said--I have a lot to be thankful for! I haven't heard from Daisy much lately, but that is probably because she is super busy with family. Jazz just moved to AZ, if I'm not mistaken. Plus it's little man's (Ray's oldest--or should I just say Racheal's oldest?) sixth birthday today! Happy birthday to him!! Racheal took the kids to Daisy and Big Ray's for the weekend to celebrate. So I imagine they're all pretty busy!