26 Weeks and Counting!

I can't believe that I'll be in my third trimester in two weeks! In a lot of ways, this pregnancy has flown by. In others ways, it seems like I've been pregnant FOREVER!

According to Babycenter.com, Baby Caroline is around 14 inches and 2 pounds this week. She's growing nicely in there, and her hearing is apparently getting very good about now. Considering that she's been responding to music consistently for about the last 10-11 weeks, I can't imagine that her hearing is going to get even better before it's all said and done!

I can definitely tell she's getting bigger in there. I have felt lots of hiccups over the last several weeks, and she actually kicked Jimmy in the head (repeatedly, and with great force!) the other day when he leaned down to see if he could feel some of her kicks. I haven't seen any of the weird, about-to-open-up-and-reveal-an-alien movements I used to see when I was pregnant with Anna, but I have been able to see a few kicks on the outside.

I went to the chiropractor yesterday, and he mentioned that it feels like the baby is transverse, which means she's sitting sideways right now. There is still plenty of room and time for her to turn head down, but he gave me a few exercises to do that will encourage her to turn. Basically, any time I feel her moving, I'm to get down on hands and knees with my bum in the air. Nice, huh? Ah, pregnancy makes me feel so beautiful!

My next midwife appointment is a week from Thursday, so I'll find out then if Caroline is still tranverse. It's apparently normal up until about 24-26 weeks, so we're still okay. After about 30 weeks, they really start keeping an eye on things because a baby who doesn't turn is an automatic c-section. Of course, there are other things I can do to encourage turning, including playing music down low, putting frozen peas next to the baby's head and a warm heating pad down low (baby is supposed to turn away from the cold), shining a flashlight down low (go toward the light, Baby!), and lying inverted on a board for 10 minutes a day. Apparently, diving into a swimming pool several times can also help, but the image of my 7 or 8 months pregnant self diving off a diving board gives me the giggles! But I will do just about ANYTHING to avoid a c-section, so if that means diving or standing on my head or walking on my hands, so be it! Turn, Baby, Turn!