Week 27

Oh what a week! Is it Friday yet? Because it needs to be!!! You have no idea how worn out me and Brian are from this move! Poor Brian had to move EVERY SINGLE box, piece of furniture, etc down two sets of stairs into a truck and then up another two sets of stairs into our new house. Despite the moving frustrations, heavy lifting and soreness, he has not complained once and been quite a trooper! We still have another 2 or so loads left to grab and then comes the fun cleaning of our old place. Needless to say, this process seems neverending!

BUT, we LOVE our new townhome. It's so nice not having anyone making noise above or below us and I really like having the keypad access from our garage so I don't have to deal with locking doors all the time. It's in the perfect location too-we are one block from all of the restaurants, coffee shops, etc so no more dealing with parking and meter fees! Otis seems to like it too! Hopefully, he will lose a pound or two from all the running up and down the stairs.

Now, on to Ella. We are at 27 weeks in our pregnancy. Below is more information about Ella this week:

Beginning at this stage, your baby's length will be measured from top of head to toe — which makes Ella Grace nearly a full 15 inches now. And at just over two pounds, she has doubled in weight from four weeks ago.

Her auditory development (hearing) is progressing as the network of nerves to the ears matures. And even though the sounds she hears are muffled (thanks to the creamy coating of vernix covering those ears), she may recognize both mom and dad's voices. So this might be a good time to read and even sing to her (or rather, my belly; plus, I can promise you she doesn't want to hear me sing!) — and a good chance to start boning up on those nursery rhymes and lullabies I'll need to be repeating (and repeating) pretty soon. Also, If Brian presses his ear to my belly, he might be able to hear the baby's heartbeat.

Ella's taste buds are very developed now too (with more taste buds than he or she will ever have outside the womb, actually). Need a taste test? If I eat some spicy food, she will be able to taste the difference in the amniotic fluid (but keep in mind that you'll have different mealtimes, with hers coming about two hours after mine). Some babies will even respond to that spicy kick by hiccupping. And although hiccups (which feel like belly spasms to me) may seem like they're disturbing to her, she isn't stressed at all. It's just one more sensation that babies need to get used to.

She has been pretty quiet this week due to all of my crazy activity. I have been non-stop so I guess all of that activity is rocking her to sleep! She just likes to kick at night while I'm trying to sleep:)

All and all, everything is going well. We go to our 2nd week of childbirth prep classes tonight and in the next week or two, we are going to start working on her little nursery. Right now, it's just covered in all of her boxes! We're also starting to look into childcare (just a little late on this) and are going to look at a facility today. Lots to do, so little time to do it!

Oh, 1 more week until I'm officially 7 months! Almost there!