Sorry for the silence, y’all — I’m back and playing catch-up! Today is technically the first day of Week 28…but we’ve been so busy that Week 27 slipped our minds. I know we owe pictures…and I promise we’ll have them up next week. In the meantime, here’s a quick update to get us back on track!

Here’s how we’re doing at Week 27:

Baby’s size: About 15 inches and 2.5 pounds…and growing, growing, growing!

What’s keeping Baby busy: Baby is using those rapidly developing lungs, inhaling and exhaling…and yes, hiccuping too! Also, Baby’s brain is showing more and more activity…getting smart like his or her daddy, I’m sure 😉

What’s keeping Mom and Dad busy: We just got home from our annual jaunt to MerleFest, one of the highlights of our year. Mom and Mari-Jo’s music store is a large sponsor of the festival, and we love helping them work the Jackson’s Music booth for the four-day weekend. This year we rented a house for the whole family, and had a blast in the NC mountains. Baby and I were in charge of the cash register, while the rest of the family made sure we didn’t lift a finger. (Can we say spoiled rotten?) We haven’t gotten much checked off the baby-related to-do list lately, but we’ve sure been having fun.

Cravings: Avocados, hard-boiled eggs, Earth Fare peanut butter, dark-chocolate chips, and, yes, strawberries.

Struggles: Holy baby bump! We’ve certainly hit a growth spurt, and it has taken me by surprise how much the growing belly impedes normal movement. Adam keeps threatening to buy me an ultra-embarrassing grabber…but I’m holding out. The books tell us we can expect Braxton Hicks to kick in pretty soon. I’ve had a few moments where I thought I felt the tightening folks describe…but I’m not 100% certain. That’s the funny part about first-time pregnancies…everything feels weird and different, so it’s hard to distinguish between symptoms!

Joys: We’re off to our Babymoon in just three short days! I’m planning a full post about our wonderful excursion once we get home…but in the meantime, let’s just say I’m simply giddy!

P.S. I have to admit I found this article absolutely hilarious. “How to Have the Best Pregnancy Ever” pokes fun at the millions of contradictory opinions about what future mommies should and shouldn’t do throughout their pregnancy. It isn’t too far-fetched! In fact, when Adam called one of our dear friends, Mark Ford, to tell him we were expecting, one of Mark’s first pieces of pregnancy advice was “don’t look at the Internet.” As the proud daddy of the amazing 15-month-old Emma, Mark knew well what dangers lurked with one click on Google.