26 Weeks!

Yesterday marked the beginning of my 26th week of pregnancy with this baby. Next week I will be in the third trimester. Wow! We are planning on inducing labor by 39 weeks (one week early), so that means I have less than 13 weeks left, assuming all continues to go well (knock on lots and lots of wood).

I am now at the point where bending over is tricky, and I get pretty uncomfortable trying to get comfortable. I just had to buy some new maternity clothes because everything is starting to get a little too- ahem- snug!

I go in for my next appointment this Thursday, and will be doing the Glucose Tolerance Test, which checks for Gestational Diabetes. I take the one hour test, and if I fail that, I have to take a three hour test. With Paprika, I failed the one hour but passed the three hour. So, hoping that I pass the one hour easily this time so I don't have to go back for that three hour test!

I have started buying a few things for the baby. I said I wouldn't this time because it was so hard to return things after Vivian and Annemarie died. I kept some special clothes and blankets for them, which I have in a memory box. But, many of the new things I bought them had to be returned, which was really hard to do. I don't want to go through that again.

I decided this time I will buy clothes and things I would want to keep anyway (like special blankets, etc.)- but that many of the big "gear" items, I will wait to buy til later. Stuff like a double stroller, a new carseat (baby can use Paprika's infant carrier to come home from the hospital)- I will wait on those things because the last thing I want to do is have to bring a carseat back to Babies 'R Us and explain why we don't need it anymore...

We are still not talking to Paprika too much about the new baby. She is pretty confused with wondering about where Vivian and Annemarie went (Heaven is not a concept easily grasped by a 2 1/2 year old)- and I suspect that if we told her much about her new sibling, she would just assume that this baby will, too, end up in Heaven.

So, we are slowly talking about things, but I suspect she will not "get it" until the baby comes home. We are not planning on having Paprika with us in the hospital (unless this birth experience is radically different than previous ones). My first birth experience involved me being in the Maternal ICU for pre-eclampsia, and the second birth experience was even more dramatic than that, of course. Paprika gets very concerned and scared when she even sees me using the doppler, so we will try to keep her separate from as much of the medical stuff as we can. Mr. Mustard's mom will be staying at our house with Paprika during the birth, which is just wonderful. :-)

So, yes- 13 weeks seems like such a long time away. We are very ready for this child, and can't wait to bring this baby home!!!