I love Mondays...

Mondays have become something of a mini-holiday for me. Each new Monday marks the passage of another full week in gestation for Carys.

Today is 25 weeks!

This week her lungs are continuing to develop, and her nostrils have opened to allow practice 'breaths'. Apparently, she's also looking a little more pink due to the formation and filling of blood of new capillaries.

Every day that passes now is extra time for her lungs to grow and mature. According to viability statistics, she now has a 50% chance of survival if born this week. Next week the rate of survival will jump to 80%. I am painfully aware as ever that nothing is guaranteed, but those numbers make it a lot easier to sleep at night.

In other news, if I wasn't feeling pregnant before I definitely am now. There was a brief honeymoon period in between the first trimester and now because I wasn't suffering from morning (morning/noon/night sickness... who the heck decided to mislead first time moms by alluding that you only get sick in the morning?!) sickness, my appetite was back and I wasn't big enough to be uncomfortable yet. Well, as they say, the honeymoon is over -- I have to eat several small meals and try to space out my water intake over the day or I am too uncomfortable to sit. Her kicks are forceful enough to be painful if she hits the right spot these days, and regular sleep is a thing of the past!

J told me in no uncertain terms the other day that he is ready for me to not be pregnant anymore. I don't blame him, I know I'm not fun to be around right now. Being uncomfortable most of the time makes me grouchy, and it's hard to not be snappish and whiny. I know he's ready to have his wife back and I'm eager to have her here and to try and get my comfortable, pre-pregnancy body back. Right now I feel like just an incubator! More than anything, it's important to both of us that she stay in and cook until she's good and ready, but pregnancy is not the warm, fuzzy experience I always imagined it to be. Don't get me wrong, I love that I'm pregnant- I love getting to feel my baby move and watching my body change to accomodate her, but there are a host of uncomfortable side effects that come with carrying another person around that I never knew about! I guess some part of my naive subconscious thought that my pregnancy would be the exception to the rule and I'd coast through it like a warm knife through butter. :)

She's so worth it, though. To be honest, I wouldn't trade this experience for the world- labor scares, painful back, itchy skin, morning sickness (and on and on) and all!! And some day, when we're ready to expand our little family again, I'll happily (well, mostly) go through the process all over again.

The countdown is at 105 days, we still have quite a ways to go. Hopefully hubby will continue patiently putting up with me, mood swings and all, until she gets here!