week 25-26

Updates on the spawn:

• The kicking has gotten a little out of hand. In fact, sometimes she squirms and that is the WEIRDEST FEELING EVER because you can literally feel some hard thing squirming by your hand. I realized that childbearing is actually really creepy. During the opening scene of Jurrassic World where the dinosaur cracks out of its egg I leaned over and whispered "OOO JUST LIKE THE BABY" and now he's also appropriately creeped out.
• Nighttime seems to be her favorite time to play. Eric likes to groggily reach over and slap his hand on my tummy in the middle of the night to feel her dance party-ing away. He calls it "father daughter bonding time". I call it "shit. gotta start reading up on sleep training ASAP"
• She's getting big! According to google she is now around 14 inches and almost 2 lbs. I am hitting 3rd trimester next week and this past week was the first week where I started to feel "heavy". In practical terms, it means I'm finding myself embarrassingly short of breath walking up half a flight of stairs and the tummy is definitely feeling like a real impediment now rather than an extra large dinner. Also my lower back/butt/and calves are much more sore from walking than ever before. 
• Viral infection blood tests came back negative so we can officially rule viral infection out for that echogenic bowel
• Up next:
• Glucose tolerance screening (ughs)
• Birthing classes (ughsx2 but eric is really excited)
• 3rd trimester checkups and screening to see how that echogenic bowel is doing

Babymoon!

Since Eric and I never actually went on a honeymoon (we traded it for Series A funding and a family trip where we awkwardly juggled the asian parents) he planned a babymoon for the 2.5 of us. After much agonizing, we decided to go to the exotic land of Los Angeles. It was between that, Hawaii, or Mexico. After reading that pregnant women are EXTRA DELICIOUS to mosquitoes we opted for LA. Also we had a wedding to attend so that worked out perfectly! I told Eric to just plan it because I'm tired of planning things as my day job and also cause I'm lazy :D. Baby daddy did a pretty good job - we ended up spending a couple days each in Santa Monica, Downtown LA, and Laguna beach.

Ramen! Despite my newfound intolerance for garlic

Before wedding. I love my "food baby/buffet" sweater. It hides all the babies real or otherwise.

Hello 26 week bump!

Dying in Downtown Disney from the 90 degree weather. Good thing we didn't go adventurous and attempt anything hotter. 

Digging a hole for my belly so I can lie down in the sand

Eric insisted we wear this stuff in socal.. also, augh, i've gotten so large

Dinner at Laguna Beach

Week 23-24

Second trimester is a pretty boring trimester. Not much happens other than the steady growth of my belly and a whole lot of kicking. SPEAKING OF KICKING, I've decided to write an in depth description of what it feels like since Google failed to make it clear.

Kicking 101 (with baby spawn)

• When it started: I could feel fluttering around week 16. Now at this point, when they say "flutters" that is what it feels like. They could be phantom for all I know but it feels closest to that feeling of super nervousness and your stomach is fluttering. Sometimes if I placed my hand hard on my belly I could ALMOST make out the fluttering underneath.Of course Eric was convinced he could feel it due to his "special bond" with the baby
• Hard kicks: That started around week 17. It was pretty surprising as I was just sitting there and then suddenly it felt like part of my tummy spasm. The mom can definitely feel it more than anyone else as you feel it both on the inside as well the gentle bump outside the belly.
• Week 20-ish: Definitely not gentle bumps anymore. I was able to see a couple times outside my belly whenever the baby kicked. There is a "tv remote test" where you balance the tv remote on your belly and watch when it moves as the baby kicks. Half the time my labored asthmatic breathing made it look like the baby kicked. Eric was actually able to feel the kicks at this point.
• Week 24: BABY HICCUPS! So for the past week or so I've been feeling what feels like light kicks to my butt/cervix (not that I actually know where my cervix is located, I just imagine that it's my cervix). They are pretty annoying and come regularly for a little while. I'm pretty sure those are hiccups and the baby apparently spends half her day hiccuping. 

24.5 weeks... it definitely looks like there's a baby in there now.. 

Geez baby, you have a lot of stuff for someone who isn't even born yet. All thanks to your aunties.

With week 24 finishing up, the baby is now viable! She now has a 50-80% chance of survival outside the womb :). Week 24 is also the cutoff date if anyone wanted to terminate a pregnancy (:( :()

COMPLETED WEEKS OF GESTATION AT BIRTH (using last menstrual period)	CHANCE OF SURVIVAL
21 weeks and less	0%
22 weeks	0-10%*
23 weeks	10-35%
24 weeks	40-70%
25 weeks	50-80%
26 weeks	80-90%
27 weeks	>90%
30 weeks	>95%
34 weeks	>98%