Week 28

Description (from Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy):
Your baby's eyes, which have been sealed shut for the last few months to allow the retinas to develop, are probably beginning to open and close this week. If you could sneak a peek at your baby this week, you might be able to determine the color of her eyes.
Your baby's brain is also continuing to develop and expand rapidly this week. In addition, your baby is continuing to accumulate layers of fat underneath the skin.
Your baby is now sleeping and waking on a regular schedule. But this schedule isn't like that of an adult or even of a newborn. At this size, your baby probably sleep for only 20 to 30 minutes at a time.
By the 28th week of your pregnancy, the end of your seventh month, your baby is about 10 inches long, crown to rump, and weighs about 2 pounds.

Baby Days:
The past few days have been full of baby appointments it seems. Yesterday morning, I met with a parent educator from the Parents as Teachers programs run through our school district. She was very nice, informative and reassuring. I'll meet with her again some time after the baby is born and 5 times per school year after that. She comes for about an hour, goes over some of the developmental milestones and we do a few activities together with the baby.

Then, last night was our first "lamaze" class. It turns out to be much more of an overall childbirth class which is really great, actually. Yesterday night was sort of an overview and we did a few relaxation exercises. It will be interesting to see what next week brings!

Finally, this morning I had my 28 week doctor's appointment. From now on, I'll be going every 2 weeks and I'll start rotating through the group of OB doctors so that I'll at least have met the person who may end up delivering our baby if our doctor isn't available. Updates from the appointment:
I've gained 4 1/2 pounds over the past 4 weeks, bringing the total to 15 1/2 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight.
I passed the glucose tolerance test with flying colors...no gestational diabetes!
The baby's heartbeat was very loud today and was 158 beats per minute :)
I'm borderline anemic, so I have to start taking iron supplements in the mornings in additional to the prenatal vitamins in the evenings.
My fundal height measured at 26 centimeters. That means it has increased 3 cm in the past four weeks and 3 cm in the four week period before that. Generally, it's supposed to increase about 1 cm per week. So, if it doesn't increase 2 cm by my next appointment (in two weeks) the doctor is going to order another ultrasound just to be sure baby is growing at a healthy rate. She's pretty certain it's probably just because I'm short and small, but she wants to be sure.
Overall, everything is going very well and I feel great!

In addition to the Dr Seuss characters that I posted pictures of last week, Kris has added the fish from the Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2 and a few little sneetches (both star-bellied and plain). We're not done painting them yet, so I'll hold of on pics until next week.