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| Click to enlarge ... you know, just in case I'm not large enough already! |
I wish I had been more consistent taking belly shots with my last pregnancy (I took plenty, but rarely on the exact day) so we could adequately compare, but I do have a shot from 18 weeks + 6 days from my pregnancy with Ewan. (So flattering, I know!)
As far as baby names go, we've long been settled on the girl name (since early in my pregnancy with Ewan), but the boy name is quite a bit more difficult. It took forever to come up with Ewan's name -- something that has meaning, something that's unique (nothing too weird, just nothing where there's going to be five or six of the same name in his class), and that we both like the sound of. It was a struggle to arrive at the one boy name we used already. We just can't agree.
Sigh.
I've been busy getting the baby's room ready. There's a lot more work to do, but it's great finally to have a start. I can't wait until all this unpacking is done!!
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| The nursery is definitely in the middle of a really big "so far" stage. |
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| Lots of stuffed lovies (many inherited from a big brother) waiting for our bean. |
I'm still feeling good and am finally back in a regular routine of working out. When I was still in the throes of nausea (up until about 13-14 weeks), there was not a single vegetable I could keep down. Over the last several weeks, I've definitely been making up for lost time. My favorite lunch these days is a veggie sandwich made with cucumber, baby spinach, Roma tomatoes, sliced black olives, and lite cream cheese on a whole-wheat sandwich thin, and a side of carrot sticks, if you please. And speaking of healthy (but so delicious you'd swear it was baaaad), I recently tried this recipe for the first time so I could indulge my sweet craving a bit. James and I finished off a whole bowl in less than 24 hours.
I'm just sayin'.
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| My "reality check" pic. The words "miles to go before I sleep" come to mind ... |
In other pregnancy-related news, I'm already at that part where my hips hurt during the night. But luckily, I am also at the part where we can feel the baby move a lot which is always fun. S/he seems to wiggle around quite a bit and rarely kicks the same place twice.
We are fast approaching that midpoint in the pregnancy, but our first official appointment with the midwife isn't until August 29 when I'll be close to 21 weeks. At that point, we will get referred out for an ultrasound (that's the only kind of test she doesn't do in her office), so I will probably be around 22 weeks or so before we go in and find out if we've got a little brother or little sister baking in there.
And while we're on the topic, I am not anxious about the ultrasound, but I do have some nervousness when I think about it. I mean, who in our shoes wouldn't be? I want to see my baby, and I definitely want to know more about who is in there. But the truth is, we got a heaping dose of bad news at our very first ultrasound with Ewan, and the medical professionals we were dealing with at the time didn't exactly smooth the way for us. So while I'm not fretting or nervous, I'm not exactly jumping all over myself to lie on that table to get under the ultrasound wand to discover that information. I can reason with myself all I want about how statistically unlikely it is and how it is most likely the case that everything is fine, but the truth is, we just don't know either way yet. So I am hopeful, but sober.
One this is for sure: this child is incredibly loved (regardless of whether s/he is "perfect" or not), covered in prayer, and is eagerly anticipated by more than his/her parents and family. C'mon, baby!! Grow baby, grow!!
