27 weeks.

HELLLLLLOOOOOOO 3rd trimester!  It is so lovely to see you!  This babe is 2/3rds of the way cooked, and we are about 12 weeks away from meeting him or her!  I am getting very excited...earlier this week we passed the 3 month countdown mark to my c-section date, and it's a little surreal that just as spring is rollin' around we will be a family of 4 (okay, 5 with Scoots) and my little babe Patrick will not be the baby anymore, but instead a big brother.  Definitely an OMG realization moment there.

Going into this week I am definitely still feeling good--very limited back pain up until this point (if I remember corrected with Patrick I started having back pain around the mid 20s week mark)...so nothing more than a few aches and pains here and there thus far.  I'm sure that'll change soon, but for now I'm definitely feeling good.  My belly is definitely growing nice and round!  My eyes pretty much say it all in this pic:

I have my 27 week appointment at my OB on Monday and my glucose test (please oh please pass!!!) so I'm curious to see how big my belly is measuring (it was only +1 over at my 23 week appointment) and how fast this little one's heartbeat is thumping away.  This one is definitely a mover and a kicker--I swear he/she just swims and flips and punches and kicks in there all.day.long.  Haha!  But I love it, and I love feeling that--so keep swimmin' and punchin' away little one, mama doesn't mind :)  Also, I will note that I still haven't developed the pregnancy vein (linea nigra) line yet!  I cannot believe it!  I swear I had it super early, from my ribcage to my pelvis, with Patrick, and now, with #2, nothing.  Another big difference between these pregnancies, which makes me speculate that this babe might be a different gender than their brother...

I go back to work on Monday as well--have been off essentially for 3 weeks (almost a month since I actually taught a class, thanks to finals week in December!), so I'm anxious to get back at that and meet my new girls (3 new classes for me this semester).  I hope they don't mind that I'll probably be doing a lot of teaching from my rolly chair--good thing I teach classes that are based on computers!  Haha!  I can just roll over towards them then :)

Overall, my first two trimester have been great and, despite some morning sickness and nausea, very uneventful.  I hope my third continues on this same path of uneventfulness until it's full term time and time to meet this little babe...who I'm still thinking is a girl.  Either way, I'll be happy (and surprised!), but my gut is telling me girl...right now.  I've still got 12 weeks to change that opinion :)  Until week 28, adios!