Week 27

This week, our baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, our baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. I should chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements I may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother her, however they will tickle me.

Charlotte has been very active and very responsive. She is getting bigger as I am getting bigger as well. And, I have been swelling more and more. I started wearing my rings on my necklace this week because my fingers are almost always swollen. Also, I crave chocolate pretty much all the time. I don't know if I had shared but my main cravings the last month have been cheetos, cherry coke, and chocolate sprinkles. But, now it is just chocolate, but not chocolate ice cream, more like chocolate candy bars and chocolate milk. I try not to give in all the time, but everyday at least I drink chocolate milk. I have always been a big fan of chocolate, so this isn't surprising. If Charlotte is anything like her mom she will be a chocoholic herself. 

Hot... one words to describe how I feel most of the time. I am always hot. As you can see in the picture this week I am wearing a tank-top. I am going to have to invest in skirts and shorts to wear. I guess because there is so much fluid and hormones flowing through my body. This is so unusual for me because I actually have an extra sensitivity to cold normally because of my thyroid deficiency. 

The Bump

I don't know if I can still call Charlotte a "bump" as I am rather large. Here you go...

Getting Better

I started feeling under the weather Thursday night with my throat hurting. And, I just got worse until Sunday and Monday when I was miserable. Finally, I started getting better after sleeping almost 30 hours, and today I felt even better. I just keep sleeping a lot, and hope to get better. I was scared to take anything because it all says not to if your pregnant. The doctor did tell me I could have some Sudafed. 

It's official...

Mark and I have started our house hunt in Dallas. This is such a hard thing for me because I absolutely love our house now, but I know that Mark is going to be even busier when she comes and that it would makes more sense to move to Dallas. I want him to be able to spend as much time as possible and as he wants with her, and the only way to secure this is to be close to his school and work. 

On Monday, when we went up to Dallas and drove around some specific neighborhoods we were looking into to make sure they were places when would want to live. We did this before about a week ago as well. We found a house we really liked on Monday and did a drive-by. Mark called today to see if we could get a showing on Friday and it already has two applications in on it, which didn't make sense because it has been vacant since December. So, I googled our second favorite house and it said leased today as well. Then, there were three more properties on our list that also had leased overnight. So, I am thinking that houses that are nice and in our price range and neighborhoods are going to go quick.

Which brings me to my next point, our lease isn't up until the end of July. Our hope is that we can move June 1st, but we can't afford double rent. So either someone would want to move into our house earlier or the new houses is already vacant and the landlord would want us to move in early so it wasn't vacant and we would work something out where we get owner rent for the year or free time in the house.  I will keep you updated on any new changes.

Mark

Mark has had a pretty big last month with school. He has participated in several competitions with moot court through the school and traveled to Lubbock and New York as well as competed in Dallas. His team has done exceptionally well at this competitions. Also, this past weekend he had his final trial for his 2L year, which is like a big mock trial. He is now focusing on finals and he just started doing research for a professor this week. After finals he will focus on his judicial internship with a federal bankruptcy judge this summer and a moot court competition which he will compete in June 28-30 as long as Charlotte doesn't intend to make her arrival then. He is also trying out for moot court teams, applying to jobs, trying out for Law review, and trying to get into a clinic for next Fall in the next few weeks. So, he has been working hard.