Belly! ~ 26 1/2 weeks

Well, it's been a while since I've posted a belly photo, so here you go. 

The only thing that's allowed to get any bigger is my baby!

Baby is VERY active. I've felt her with the hiccups once or twice, and she's started doing this interesting little fast flutter-kick or bicycle-pedal style movement. I can tell it's her feet moving because there's always a steady pressure on the opposite side from the flutter-kick feeling which I'm sure is her head pressing there. She has plenty of space to move; my hips are about 40" even when I'm not pregnant, and I'm very long-waisted. Unfortunately this means that she can still fit comfortably down in my pelvis... right next to/on top of my bladder, which she punishes mercilessly. Most women have relief from this during the second trimester... not I. Oh, well. At least I don't have heartburn like so many women do.

In a couple of weeks I'll be into the third trimester, aka the home stretch. I've already gained ALL of my allotted pregnancy weight (20-25 lbs) so I'll need to be very careful to get lots of exercise and watch what we eat during the next three months. Baby still needs to put on about 6 lbs by herself, but we don't want her to get too big because that can create complications. I'm on the borderline of gestational diabetes (I was pre-diabetic before pregnancy), which is nothing to mess with! I have to test my blood sugar after every meal, and first thing in the morning. It's going very well right now, but during the third trimester the placenta begins producing even more of the hormones that make women insulin-resistant in the first place. If I actually develop diabetes, I'll be subject to all kinds of interventions in the last several weeks, including twice-weekly fetal testing, higher likelihood of labor induction, and double the chance of C-Section. I don't want ANY of those things, so I'm being very careful. 

At 26 weeks, Baby's eyes can open and she can see very bright light if it's hitting my belly. She's also able to hear and respond to noise and pressure. She probably weighs just under 2 pounds and is 14-16 inches long. She frequently jiggles my belly with her kicks and turns, and she's getting strong!