26 weeks

Yesterday I finally made it to 26 weeks! Which for me, means I can breathe a little easier. 26 weeks is an arbitrary milestone, I know, but last pregnancy I read a book that said the survival rate for a baby born at 26 weeks was something like 60%, which feels like a fighting chance to me. I think the medicine must have improved, because today I found this chart (on about.com, but about.com credits March of Dimes with the chart.)

Length of Pregnancy	Likelihood of Survival
23 weeks	17%
24 weeks	39%
25 weeks	50%
26 weeks	80%
27 weeks	90%
28-31 weeks	90-95%
32-33 weeks	95%
34+ weeks	Almost as likely as a full-term baby
Sources: March of Dimes, Quint Boenker Preemie Survival Foundation

So if something were to happen and I had to deliver today, BG2 would have an 80% likelihood of survival. So whew. I feel like I've made it. Every day from here just makes her stronger. So while I really would like for her to wait 13 weeks or so before she makes her appearance, I'm pretty relieved that she now has a chance outside of my body, should the worst happen.

I know I said that I would call her BG2 on the blog, and I have been. But Jason and I have been calling her Awesome Pants, which is currently our frontrunner of a name for her. Which tells you we need to sit down and seriously talk names. For realz.

I also remember awhile back lamenting how I just wasn't able to focus on this pregnancy as much as I could with Annabella's, and how it didn't feel fair. Awesome Pants has made me sit up and pay attention. She kicks and rolls and lets me know she's there. Her little jabs feel so much stronger than Annabella's were, at least for how far into this pregnancy I am. And I think she's just outright more active than Annabella was. I remember needing to concentrate to count the kicks with Annabella to make sure she was moving enough. I never feel that way with Awesome Pants. She's like a little boxer when she gets going. Boom boom boom. Kick kick kick. Roll roll roll. Repeat.

I'm sure some of the difference here between the 2 sisters has a lot to do with size. Annabella was and is tiny. She could have been kicking me as hard as her little legs permitted and it just wouldn't feel as hard as a normally sized baby could kick. And I think Awesome Pants is actually on the large size. My uterus measured a week or so ahead of schedule at my last appointment. I have another ultrasound at the end of the month which should estimate her size, but she just feels big to me. Granted, a baby who was in the 25th percentile would probably feel huge to me; so we'll see.

On a completely unrelated note, Annabella has now gone pee pee in the potty 4 times in the last 2 days. One of the times she even pointed to the bathroom to indicate she wanted to go sit on the potty. I don't think we're quite ready for potty training yet, but I am so completely proud of my little girl.