23 Weeks ?!?!?!

Where has the time gone?  How can I be 23 weeks already???  Somewhere between this week and 25 weeks, the baby's chance of viability should he be born prematurely will go from about 10% to over 50%.  Now, let's be clear, babies born this early have serious and long term disabilities if they are lucky enough to survive.  So I'm hoping baby boy is safe and sound inside for another 14-17 weeks, but just the fact that we are approaching the gestational age of viability is amazing.  And um, holy crap - the idea that I will be full term in 14 weeks is pretty terrifying.  The time is going by remarkably fast.

However, as an always present reminder of how much further we still have to go in this CRAZY journey, my body is keeping things interesting.  I have caught the terrible cold that my son had last week, and I have coughing fits that literally feel as though they are going to split my pelvis apart.  And we (my doctors and I) believe that is what resulted in some bright red bleeding yesterday.  It was minimal and short lived.  There was no associated cramping.  And baby boy is doing an amazing job of kicking me fairly consistently around the clock - so I didn't need to go in.  But let me tell you, there is no greater reminder of how quickly this could all still fall apart than seeing bright red blood when you go to the bathroom - no matter how small the quantity.

In growth news, he should be 11.4 inches long and 1.1 lbs - about the size of an eggplant.  For a child that's only grown about an inch in the last 2 weeks, his mama surely has exploded.  Not so much weight wise, I just feel HUGE.  I mean seriously like a bus.  I can't get comfortable at night any more and I feel like I look 7 months pregnant already.  I guess that's what they mean when they say someone has "popped."  I just wish it didn't feel like I was literally going to pop open yet.  These last 3-4 months are surely going to be interesting.

No bump picture again this week.  With the terrible cold that I have caught, I can barely muster the energy to get through the day.  Hopefully next week.  (You will not believe how much bigger I've gotten!)