He has a name!

Your baby has started blinking and dreaming while you may be dreaming that the pain in your derriere will disappear!

The good news is your baby is settling into the proper position for birth, with his head facing downward (toward your body's nearest exit!). The potentially painful news is his head — plus the weight of your uterus — may now be sitting on your sciatic nerve, which runs through the lower part of your back, buttocks, and legs. This common condition (called sciatica) can cause sharp, shooting pain and/or tingling or numbness, starting in your rear end and radiating down the backs of your legs. The best thing to do for sciatica? Take it easy — and hope your baby changes position sooner rather than later. And speaking of your little work in progress, he's now about 2.5 pounds and almost 16 inches long. He's busy adding new skills such as blinking to an already impressive repertoire of tricks like coughing, sucking, hiccuping, and taking practice breaths. Your baby's sleep now includes the REM (rapid eye movement) phase — and that means he could be dreaming already (what do you suppose he's dreaming about?). Though his lungs are nearly fully mature (so both of you might breathe a little easier if he were born now), your baby still has plenty of growing to do.

So, I think we are firm on a name. Not that it's really been a debate, but Jimmy is so nonchalant about most things it's been hard to get any type of solid commitment. We were talking to my Mom on Skype on Friday and she asks if we've decided and he kind of does his shrug. And she says, "well, I like Jace." And he looks slightly caught of guard and says, "Jace?" Like he has NEVER heard me mention this as a nickname option. And I kind of give him the side stink eye (because OBVIOUSLY he never listens to me). Mom goes on, "Yea, Jace, like James Scott combined..." And Jimmy goes, "Huh." And since then he's been walking around telling people like it was his brilliant idea. But just for the record, Jace was MY idea and has been rolling around in my head for the last oh... 9 months or so. So boo on my husband for not listening to me, but yea for a name! James Scott... otherwise known as Jace.

So, 28 weeks... settling in to the home stretch. It seems like it's starting to drag but speed by all at the same time. It's a very weird feeling. Jace is rolling around and moving like crazy. Sleeping in is obviously not his idea of fun as he wakes me up at the butt crack of dawn to have a little dance party in my tummy. Not that I don't love it. It's the most bizarre thing I've ever seen/felt.

We went on the hospital tour this weekend. It was fine. I think most facilities are pretty much the same. The rooms seem nice enough and they are all single rooms, so that is nice. The maternity wing is pretty much totally seperate from the rest of the hospital, seperate entrance, everything. It's in the middle of Sun City which lends to the volunteer staff being very "wise" and making for a slow and slightly painful tour, but it was fine. The RN in the post-partum unit we toured looks right at me after her little speil and says, "I'll be seeing some of you very soon, won't I? What about 3 weeks?" I look right at her and say, "No, more like 3 months..." She looked slightly uncomfortable. I don't think I'm that big, but what do I know...

Jimmy's Dad and Suzie have been AWESOME and decided to buy us our crib. This is the one I'm 99% sure we're going with (in this color, Ebony):

Anyway, here is another comparison of the belly from 17-24-28 weeks. It's getting out there!