My comment back to Grete:
Sorry to those of you who feel the way Grete does.  Truth be told – Jeff and I are bad at taking the picture.  We never did take the 26 week photo and now we’re almost to #27.  I promise (cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye) that I’ll get him to take one this week.  I’ll post now how I’m doing.

So, here is how I’m doing…  I am doing pretty good.  I have bad indigestion (do you really want to know all this?) and bad acid reflux.  My sinuses are doing their thing as they usually do, I’m just now ususally pregnant so I’m allowed to load up on medicines.  Currently I’m allowed to take Tylenol Sinus for my sinuses and TUMS for my other issues.  This includes getting up at 2:30 in the morning with a burning in my throat to down some water and chew more TUMS.  Those of you looking into playing the stock market – buy in TUMS, pregnant ladies can’t get enough of them.  According to “old wives” and now even medicine, all this indigestion means a kid with hair.  This isn’t 100% accurate, though.  I have a friend who had indigestion her entire pregnancy and her baby was bald at birth (and still has very little hair at 7+ months).

I’m tired.  All the time.  I stay tired.  I was so excited to be watching the best opening ceremonies of the olympics ever and fell asleep shortly after the US entered, totally missing the torch lighting.  Stink!

I pee a lot.  Rachel gave me a card with the most wonderful belly lotion of all time and the card had the schedule of an expectant mother.  Every 30 minutes (or maybe 15) of her daily schedule said to pee.  How true that is becoming.  I went to the bathroom FOUR TIMES while at church yesterday.  I used to rarely see that room in our building.  Long trips are now longer because I actually have to stop at rest areas (though I still avoid this as often as possible and prefer to buy food in a restaurant or shop at a Target to avoid them).

I’m excited.  We’ve had a bit of a baby boom at church here lately.  Hannah was born in December, Sean was born in June, & Logan was born a month ago.  Yesterday, Colleen (mom) was holding Logan (son) before Sunday school.  She was getting ready to do a sound check with the praise team and Logan wanted to eat.  Everyone (including me) offered to hold him while she did her sound check since she wasn’t going to feed him until afterward.  She turned every single person down.  She was going to hold that baby until it was time to feed him.  How cool – I get to do that this fall.  I don’t have to pass the baby to anyone because she will be MINE.  Now that is really, really exciting to me.  I’ve always loved babies & I love to hold babies.  For the first time in my life, I don’t have to hand a baby off to someone else.  I can say, “No thank you, I’ve got her” and people have to respect that because the baby is going to be mine.
I know, this sounds very selfish – I’m well aware of how selfish I sound – but for the first time in the world, I get to be selfish with a baby because I created and carried this one.  WOW!!!

I’m still scared.  Again, this baby is MINE.  No one else, but Jeff, is responsible for bringing her up right.  If she gets screwed up in the head, it is my fault.  If she is boy crazy, everyone will know where it came from.  When she hates her mother – that will be me!  EEK!  What am I doing?  If you see my previous post about being absolutely scared out of my noggin, I still feel that way at times, but it has subsided a bit as it’s been replaced with the utter excitement that I’m having a baby! 
I’m also still scared that I’m having a GIRL!  I had lunch with a friend last week (my 8th grade boyfriend to be exact) and when I told him it was a girl, he laughed out loud at me.  He said, “What are you going to do – you don’t know how to be a girl!”  If you knew me as I grew up, I was definately boy crazy, but I was not a girly-girl.  I never did my hair.  I never wore makeup.  The most girly thing about me growing up was my love for heels and Cinderella.  I was in a walking leg brace for 6-8 weeks in 7th grade because I went to swing out of a tree (which I’d climbed with a bunch of boys) and got my foot stuck.  I swang, but my foot didn’t come.  I tore all the ligaments in my knee and did some serious damage to the joint.  Thankfully it healed well, though it hurts and pops at times even now.  I have NO CLUE how to french braid.  I can do pony tails and pig tails & that is about it.  Anyone from UCC see Paige’s adorable double braids yesterday? – don’t hold your breath that my kid is gonna have those.  Unless Colleen volunteers to help me when I get to church, this kid is out of luck.  Now, Kathy Ferrell, my hair magician, has volunteered to teach me these great hair things and I’m probably going to try to take her up on it.

I’m excited that I’m having a girl. Afterall, I found out yesterday that one of my gifts is THIS:
Now that is exciting to me!  Yes Warren, the Riches had already bought it!  Thank you Dana & Charlotte!  Of course, my dad and the Morris’ (from church) are already scheming to provide me with the UVA alternative.  Daddy claims that since she is his granddaughter, she should represent his team as well.  I told him he’d have to use it after keeping her overnight.

Well, I think that sums up how I am today.  All in all, this pregnancy thing is fun.  I’ve been fortunate that I haven’t had many negatives.  I think I’ll even do it again in a year or so and give this baby a sibling.

Oh – we do have a name, and some people have been allowed to know it.  We’re not sharing it yet, but will soon (maybe).  Dana says that it is fitting for my little girl.  For now she’s being called Bean Louise since her middle name will be Louise.

I go back to the Dr. on 8/26 for my glucose test (for gestational diabetes) and for another ultrasound.  My placenta was low on 6/30 and they are concerned about it’s location.  If it hasn’t come up by the end of this month, I’ll get to have another ultrasound closer to my due date to decide if a c-section is best.
I’ll post my feelings on that later, though it isn’t dramatic or anything.  I’m aiming for a low-drama birth.