27 weeks: hello third trimester!

It feels like we turned a corner and now we're in the home stretch. If baby were born now she'd have an 85% chance of survival with medical intervention. There's some relief in that. She weighs about 2 lbs and is about 15" long. Her little brain is getting heavier and she's showing lots of brain activity. The amount of amniotic fluid has reduced by half so there's a better chance of seeing some little knees and elbows poking out. Last night I felt a big hard spot on my belly - it seemed like it could've been her back. She moves so much every day and the bigger she gets the harder it is to ignore. Sometimes it's just shifting and other times it's a big, hard jab. She's amazing, it's truly amazing. As I type this my belly is bouncing all over the place. It's like she knows what I'm typing. That or she's just feeling the coffee I'm drinking. We bought some saltwater taffy at the coast last weekend and the other night I ate five in a row. She was more active than ever before. Baby had a sugar high!

As for me, my belly continues to expand by leaps and bounds. I've gained 8 lbs in the last month! Holy crap. In addition to my belly, my ta-tas have also finally crossed into the next cup size. This is exciting new territory. I bought two new bras this weekend, the cheapest ones I could find at Target, a two-pack for $18.99. I just don't know how much more they'll grow and I know it's temporary. My ribs have also expanded, which is kind of a weird feeling. They're further apart in the front like my rib cage opened up. I wore a dress yesterday to my friend's baby's dedication and it was snug in the ribs. I wore it 6 weeks ago and it wasn't snug at all.

In other exciting news, we went to Babies 'R Us on Saturday to register for baby stuff. We did a lot of registering online already but we wanted to go in and scan some things we knew were in the store for anyone who prefers to actually go in the store. Friends have been supremely helpful in recommending items (did you know you can set up an "advice team" on amazon.com?), as have resources like Lucie's List and Amazon reviews. Despite our preparation we still got overwhelmed by the options a couple times. Like when we were standing in front of the wall of sippy cups. Whoa. Who knew there were three stages of sippy cups? It was a fun experience.