27 Weeks & Goodbye Second Trimester

As I currently write this, I am officially in the Third Trimester, or the home stretch, of pregnancy. The Second Trimester was mostly spent enjoying my summer vacation and I am surprised at how quickly it went by. I feel like I got to really soak in the pregnancy experience with my time off of work. I think it's really helped to keep me and the baby less stressed knowing that when I have nights, sometimes a week at a time, of insomnia; I don't have to be fresh and alert for work all day long. They say that the Second Trimester is the most enjoyable of the three trimesters of pregnancy.

As the Third Trimester begins, the baby belly seems to be growing at almost a daily rate. I'm beginning to see and feel all of the typical pregnancy symptoms that develop during this last trimester. I guess that just means that I am inching toward the finish line! My energy fades quickly, my back hurts, I have sciatic pain, I have carpal tunnel in my right hand, my legs and feet ache and burn if I stand for too long, unrestful sleep/insomnia, and the absolute worst of all (at least I think so far) is the terrible acid reflux. Going into pregnancy, I read about all of these different symptoms of pregnancy and I have to be honest and say that I didn't think they would happen to me. Whoops, was I wrong! It's fine and I don't want to sound like I'm complaining because I thank God every single day that I get to experience pregnancy and that we're having a baby. I realize it all will pass just as quickly as it has set in. No matter how much my body hurts, funny enough; I find myself loving this baby more every new day. I know it's just a temporary sacrifice for a long-term blessing.

Next week I begin seeing the doctor every other week for baby check-ups. Jim and I will be meeting with the Design Center Coordinator for our new house to hopefully finalize and sign our house paperwork. We have another showing this Sunday and today we put a good amount of spare bedroom furniture and basement stuff that we don't use into storage to help the house look less cluttered and more appealing. Plus, our baby needs a bedroom so we had to move it.

Tomorrow is our baby shower and we are VERY excited! My Mom (my Dad is helping too) has been working so diligently on this party. She's very detail oriented and creative, but even if she weren't; it would still be a great time being surrounded by all of the people we love the most in our lives. Jim and I always feel very blessed to receive outpourings of love and sincerity from our family and friends. I'm usually the person behind the camera but I'm sure that will not be something I can do as much tomorrow so hopefully I get some pictures to share somehow from someone.

The Third Trimester is really starting to make me feel just how close we really are to having this baby. I'm hoping that in another week or two we'll have baby room pictures to show more progress.