New pictures of Brooke!

Today I am almost 26 weeks pregnant (Thursday is the actual day), so I am now at the start of the third trimester!  I think it's going to start going faster now.  The past week I have been more exhausted than previously, and I finally figured out that it's probably a result of the allergy medicine I began taking a week ago.  I decreased the amount to a half pill per day and I have been feeling more energetic.  Thank goodness!  Also, my tongue swelling has finally gone down and my sores have healed on my tongue, so I am feeling so much better!

I gained almost 3 pounds in the past week!  I really hope I don't continue gaining like that or else I will definitely go over the recommended amount of weight gain!  I think I will be okay, but that was definitely a surprise.  I definitely feel like my belly has gotten a little bigger, so hopefully it's Brooke growing :)

Today's bump picture:

Today we got to see Brooke again and we got some great pictures!  They wanted to measure her to make sure she is on track since I had high blood pressure at my last appointment.  She is measuring 25 weeks and 4 days, so she is right on track!  She is in the 50th percentile, perfectly average, which is great because I don't want to try to push out a big baby.

We got some great pictures of her.  We got a couple of great profile shots, and when we tried to get a shot of her face directly, she decided she didn't want to cooperate.  We got one face shot with her yawning, but she was pressed into the placenta a little bit, so it's not very clear.  We also got a shot of her covering her face with her hand.  So cute!

Confirmation that she is definitely a girl (the lines between her legs are her labia) :)

Some great profile shots (isn't she cute!?!?):

Face shot of her yawning (she is right up against the placenta, which is why the right side of her face is blurry):

Hand covering her face (she turned away from us and is facing away from the placenta):

Before the ultrasound, I had to get my blood drawn for the glucose test.  That was pretty easy.  I had to drink a small bottle of sugary liquid and get my blood drawn an hour later.  The liquid tasted like watered down orange Triaminic (sp?) that I used to take when I was young for colds, so it wasn't too bad (I used to love that stuff :))

After the ultrasound, I got my blood pressure taken.  The first time it was 132/75, but she let me rest some and then we took it again and it was 124/72 or something like that, so that was great!  When I took it at home this morning, it was much lower, but my Dr has to make her decisions on my blood pressure at their office, so I was glad it was okay.

Then I met with my Dr and she said everything is looking really great!  So we don't need to worry about anything right now.  Hopefully my bp will stay normal and I will be able to have a normal pregnancy and delivery.  I will continue to monitor my bp at home, but I have a feeling it will be fine.  I go back to the Dr in 3 weeks and then I start going every 2 weeks after that.  Very exciting that it's starting to get to the end!  I can't wait for Brooke to get here!

Last night we went to visit Brady.  Paul read the last 2 chapters from the book, so we are going to start the third book in the trilogy next time we visit him.  It was so nice to visit him.  We usually visit him in the middle of the month, but we had been so busy this month that we were late.  I really missed visiting him.  I know we're not going to be able to go every month eventually, and I think I'm really going to miss it once we start going less frequently.

After Paul finished the book, I talked to Brady for a little bit and got a little sad and upset.  That was the first time I had cried at his grave in a while.  But it felt good to let it out.  We've been through a lot over the past year and next week I will be 27 weeks along, which was how far along I was when Brady was born.  I've also been thinking a lot about Brooke's birth, which is going to be right around the time Brady was born, so I've been thinking about Brady and what we went through a lot.

I have a feeling that Brooke's birth is going to be very emotional for me.  I know I will be so extremely happy to meet Brooke, but I will also be sad thinking about Brady.  I'm a little nervous that Brooke will end up being late and will be born on Brady's birthday.  I thought about asking my Dr to induce me before that to ensure that didn't happen, but Paul and I decided that we will leave that decision up to God, so we will see what happens.  I miss Brady :( but I know his life went the way it did for many reasons and I am thankful for what we went through and for now having Brooke.  It's just a little hard to deal with sometimes.  But overall, I am extremely happy and feel so blessed.  I love my life and I wouldn't change a thing.