Week 27: Whoa ho ho… The third trimester has arrived!

26 weeks.

Yes, I know there are some of you who will tell me that the third trimester starts next week. And there are some who have been told by their doctors that the third trimester started last week. And then there’s one of my pregnancy calendars that says it doesn’t start until the middle of the 30th week, but that calendar is on crack.

It doesn’t matter – the calendar at my doctor’s office says it starts this week, and that’s the story I’m sticking to.

So, well, yay! The home stretch. The long home stretch, actually, but so far, time is passing quickly, and I’m starting to freak out just a little bit.

Small Monster is doing very well – he likes to kick and punch and roll around a lot, and while some days he’s bouncier than others, he’s clearly having fun and growing in there. I’m not sure I can express quite how weird having someone kick you from the inside is, especially when your brain finally wraps itself around the idea that there’s a actually a little person in there, but once you start to get used to it, it’s pretty awesome. He’s not kicking hard enough to wake me up in the middle of the night yet, but I do like being greeted when I wake up in the morning with a little kick or somersault, and he sometimes kicks back when I rub my belly. I have to admit that at first, once I got over the joy of knowing for sure he was in there, there were times when it just felt too weird or uncomfortable to be kicked – it feels a bit, at first, like uncontrolled muscle spasms – and I wasn’t sure I liked the feeling. There are still times when he kicks me in the bladder or something and it’s uncomfortable, but I really do like feeling the little guy move. It’s kind of cool, now that he’s big enough to hear our voices and respond to things

In other news, we’ve finally made the last big purchases we’ll need to prepare for the baby. There are still some small things we want/need, but we’ll wait until after the baby shower to get those; basically, if I were full term now and the baby were to arrive, we’d have no trouble taking care of him with what we have (note to Small Monster: do not get any ideas. You’re not even close to fully-cooked yet are are commanded to stay in there for at *least* 11 more weeks…). We got a lot of nice stuff off of Craigslist – a Baby Björn, a very nice breast pump with extra goodies, a stroller/car seat travel system – and had already picked up a bunch of other stuff (big starter pack of disposable diapers, organizational stuff to store baby things, etc, etc) on our last major shopping trip. Yesterday, I ordered the co-sleeper/bassinet we’ll be using for the first several months, a base for our bed so that we can actually use the co-sleeper/bassinet, the really nice baby wrap that we wanted, and a sampler of cloth diaper systems for us to try out before we invest in one. I actually can’t remember all of the stuff we’ve picked up (remember: I hate shopping), and sure, we need some more small stuff, but I feel pretty good about where we are with the whole “getting ready for the baby” business – at least the material end of things. Clearly, our minds are about to be blown with the actual baby end of things, but what can ya do? He’s coming whether we’re ready or not

Now just to hope that he doesn’t come too soon – he’d have about a 50/50 chance of surviving if he were born now, and a very high chance of having a disability if he did, so he needs to stay in there and cook a little longer. Fortunately – so far, at least – he seems to be quite content to stay in his little house on the front of my very short frame, and nothing’s happened to worry us. Except for the rotten mood swings I mentioned yesterday, it’s all going really well, and I really hope it stays that way.

So anyhow… here’s to the last 3 months!

(Unfortunate postscript to a couple of people who are almost certainly not you, dear reader: do not assume the above list of baby preparations is complete and that therefore we do not know what we are doing and that you must step in to save us from ourselves. If you cannot control such urges, don’t read this blog. Thank you for your attention. This has been a public service announcement.)