"hardness" of egg shells at day 40?

This is my first clutch ever. I had a really rough time with them in the beginning and ended up losing 4 out of the 7 eggs in the first 10 days. The 3 remaining eggs are all healthy looking and are now on day 40. My question is this, I checked on them today to make sure everything's ok and get some air exchange. When I candled them I noticed that the eggs are very soft and you can easily press the shells inward, now when I got done candling and felt them again they were very firm. What's going on here? is this normal?
I'm just very confused:confused:

Does anyone know? Ideas even?

Depends on what you mean by firm. They should feel kind of soft at this point and you should be able to press them inward. Odds are the eggs "inflated" back up when you had the lid off while candling. If you go back and check after a bit they will probably start to look more dimpled again.

For many clutches in the last couple of weeks the eggs will lose some moisture and dimple slightly. It's not a big deal, you still got a couple of weeks to go.

Ok, I didn't think the eggs could start dimpling this early. I feel much better, thank you:gj: