Our friend doing the ceremony. 
Your baby now weighs nearly 2 pounds/ 875 grams and measures 14.5 inches/ 36.6 centimetres from head to toe. Her eyes open and close, she sleeps and wakes at regular intervals and she may suck a finger or thumb. The photo is of me yesterday at a wedding. 
It was such a nice wedding! With just a beautifully written ceremony! And a sit down breakfast! As for me, I'm starting to feel a bit better today, I've been taking steroids for my arthritis and that has made a huge difference to my pain during the day. Now all I need is to figure out how to get to sleep in under 4 hours and I'll be set! She is getting so big! I don't feel the same kicks that she was doing a week ago, now she seems to roll about just under the surface! I've felt her in two places at once (and these places were NOT that close together) suggesting that she is getting SO big! I am completely in love with her name, the more we call her by her name the more it just seems right. It has been so hard not just telling everyone! But I enjoy the surprize when I get the birth messages from my friends and seeing the name for the first time. So I'm hoping to give everyone that experience. This week I've started looking into childcare. Ah that guilt. We are planning on putting her in childcare relatively early (3-6 months of age) for a couple of days a week, regardless of whether I've started back at work SO I can have a break (or work). I have so much guilt about this! But it just makes sense, I'm going to need help. If I don't give myself time to have a break my body will just stop working and then I will be no use to her. But still it makes my heart cold with guilt. The baby shower is getting there. Very slowly. My SIL has been having some great ideas. So has my mum. And two of my good friends. Unfortunately everyone's been having these ideas completely independently! And I find it very hard to say no to great ideas! So the party will probably end up like a little bit of a quilt. With everyone's ideas put together. I'm so excited about it!! Tomorrow is my OBs appointment and next week is our 4D scan!
Measuring your baby from top to toe with his legs extended, he is about 35.6 centimetres. He weighs a little more than 760 grams. Your baby's eyes begin to open around now. Response to sound grows more consistent toward the end of the seventh month, when the network of nerves to the ear is complete. He also continues to take small breaths and although he's only breathing in water and not air, it's still good practice for when he's born. Read more: http://www.babycenter.com.au/pregnancy/fetaldevelopment/26weeks/#ixzz1JTOEr9em I'm not having a good week this week. For the first time in my entire life (which is 24 years of living with arthritis - which was diagnosed when I was 2) I am having my very first flare up (I think). I've heard other people complain about it (and boy can some people with RA complain about it!). I've heard it described as sore hot and swollen joints. Myself all I have experienced is joint stiffness. I've never had this all over heat in my joints before. It sucks. Still you wouldn't hear me complain about it unless you're Ri or my mum. And you'll only read about it here NEVER on facebook. I don't think I've put up a single RA related status on Facebook come to think of it! It's this 'flare' that has me completely disenchanted with my medical doctors at the Royal at the moment. I've had four appointments with the medical team at the Royal so far during my pregnancy (I see three teams, midwives, OBS and medical) and without fail the med team has been excellent at ordering tests but absolutely appaulling at making clinical decisions, they've deferred the two big issues to my GP (My reaction to the aspirin they put me on and now this flare). I've decided to go to my next appointment and ask if I can drop the medical team seeing as parking at the GP is free and 2 hours parking at the Royal costs $20. I've also decided to try my pre-pregnancy approach with the doctors, which was my way or the highway. Mum tells me I can be very intimidating and I have been trying to be nice, I just feel like I'm getting nowhere by letting the doctors set the pace. It's time for some decisions! Including the c-section vs natural birth decision. As for baby: she seems happy and kicky. 2 weeks until our 4D scan!
gin to smooth out and he'll start to look more like a newborn. His senses are becoming more sophisticated, too. At 26 weeks, fetal brain scans show response to touch. If you shine a light on your belly, your baby will turn his head, which means his optic nerve is working. 
The baby shower has a theme. Cupcakes, bunnies and tea - or bunnies on a picnic. It's all finally starting to come together in my mind, all that is left is to get the ideas from my mind to our living area and we'll be set. The invites are currently being put together by a dear friend of mine who has been so proactive about the baby shower and has really inspired me to get off my tush and start actually planning it. Ri actually drew a picture of a bunny drinking tea with cupcakes to put on the front, so I am loving the invitations. Bubs (a.k.a. 'Pooky') is getting more active with every day that passes and seems to insist that all new trick must be demonstrated to me (and Ri if he is paying attention) repeatedly between the hours of 11pm-1am. She'll usually wake up and give me a good booting as I'm waking up as if to 
say 'oi, get out of bed, I'm bored and/or hungry!' She doesn't seem to like loud noises as she will always stop her kicking if there is a loud persistent sound (I imagine her in there with her hands over her little ears). She loves it (or hates it, depending on what you think kicking means!) when I have my hand (or Ri has his hand) on my belly, she'll usually boot where she can feel the extra pressure. It's been good as it means she will quite predictably boot Ri everyday! Which he loves. I am feeling pretty big today! There has not been a huge change in my belly size of the last fortnight, but for some reasons I feel bigger and smaller depending on the time of day, or from day to day. My belly button has been gradually departing. It's currenting a half innie half outie, which just looks weird. Ri finds it amusing.
heard of Wacky Wednesday, but it's a Dr Seuss book where you have to identify a certain amount of 'Wacky' things happening in the pictures of each page. Well on one page, between me, Ri, mum and my brother we could only find 8/9 Wacky things. So I gave the book to my dad and within 5 seconds he identified the last Wacky thing on the page (and he left my place thinking I was a bit of an idiot for missing it, I think!) Medically I'm doing well. 