Twenty-two weeks

I've officially made the jump from 'weekly fruits' provided by The Bump to only one per month. So from weeks 22 to 24, I'm housing a papaya. And baby is being measured head to foot now. Milestones, baby!

And ladies & gents...I now present to you a REAL pregnant belly! To those of you who guessed that I'd 'pop' at 22 weeks I believe you deserve a gold star. In fact, I donned a real maternity shirt for this weekly shot because my regular ones are just too short.



I know it's still not huge or anything, and I'm far from people at work or strangers on the street really taking notice. But when I was in the shower the other morning I looked down and could barley see my toes. About time, right?!

Apparently baby is now sleeping 12-14 hours per day and during his rare wakeful hours he spends his time moving around like a crazy little papaya. I'm trying to figure out his sleeping pattern and pin point when he's most active and so far I got nothing. Sometimes I won't feel (or maybe just won't notice) him moving for a really long time and I get a little panicky. But then, like a champ, he starts showing off his upper cuts and roundhouse kicks to ease my mind. Another big happening? At 22 weeks he can hear us out here on the other side. I guess studies show babies find their parents voices and gentle music most soothing. Hmmm, so my son will probably like Miley Cyrus and sarcastic remarks between his parents, then? Speaking of sarcastic remarks....

On Sunday Nate and I were driving around running a billion errands and I asked if he'd thought anymore about names. I told him my top two out of the final four and he agreed that those were his favorites, too. We decided to think on it a little more and then all of a sudden, later that evening, we officially have a winner. We've also officially decided not to share his name but the way it was finalized is too funny not to disclose.

So we're driving around for the billionth-and-first errand that night when we get behind the slowest driver known to mankind. They had an out-of-state license plate (although to avoid any feather ruffling I will not mention which state is was) which of course made Nate, Mister perfect driver, spout off a few inappropriate comments. I then reminded dear Nathan that our son can now hear every word we are saying, and Nate immediately patted my stomach and apologized using our now-chosen name. When it came out of his mouth it sounded exactly right, even though it was the name I thought Nate wouldn't choose out of our top two, and we both agreed right then and there that our son had a name. So cursing at out-of-state drivers lead to a direct apology to our baby, which lead to his name being said out loud. Can't wait to share this story with our boy...and how exciting to settle on a name! Now that we have a name I cannot wait to get started on a print or two for the nursery and I've started telling Henry about his baby brother's name. I think he digs it. And yes, 'Henry' and our baby's name go well together as I'm sure you wondered:)

A few other things from this week: we bought a camcorder to capture baby in real-time motion. And no, it will not be used to tape the birth, as some have asked because nobody needs to see my biz down there. But really, how else will grandparents and great-grandparents (and adoptive aunts and uncles) who live so far away get to see our little munchkin smile and roll and scream and be adorable? We knew we wanted a video camera and Nate was all over the research process. He decided on a Kodak HD Zi6....in PINK!! I know, I know, just picturing Nate holding the pink camera hovering over his son like a proud daddy is too much to bear. But the pink version was $30 less than the black. And not only that, but with our Discover reward points we paid a total of $22 for the sucker including a memory card. Did I mention I'm obsessed with getting good deals?



My new goal is to capture baby's visible kicks on video. Let's just say that my timing isn't the best because I've whipped out the camera about ten times today when he gets to kicking and then, of course, he stops until I put the camera back down. Oh sweetie, you better not be a camera-shy baby or you have a long road ahead of you:)

Also, a new annoying symptom of pregnancy? Difficulty staying asleep. I never have issues falling asleep but once I make my nightly trip to the bathroom I'm having a hard time falling back to sleep. The other night I got up at 3:30 and then just laid there for two whole hours waiting to drift off again. Annoying! I mean, I know this is probably my body's way of getting me used to lack of sleep and blah blah blah but I'm not staying up for any good purpose, like soothing a newborn baby or because I'm so huge I cannot get comfortable. I'm just laying there with a million thoughts running through my mind, including but not limited to: when will I fall back asleep? Why am I still awake? This is stupid. I have this idea for the nursery.....and what about names.....and when was the last time the baby kicked me? You get the idea. A bunch of non-sense floating around up there keeping me from catching my zzzzz's. Let's hope this is a little phase that passes quickly or I'm going to morph into that cranky pregnant lady from the first trimester again. Nobody deserves that punishment.

I didn't mention the amazing weekend I had with my parents because that will be a separate post entirely. But it's safe to say this baby is going to have two sets of fabulous grandparents who love him with all of their might. And he's going to have a pimped out nursery for sure. I wish every weekend was a three day weekend full of visits from my parents. You can't get much better than that:)

So the big deuce-deuce: a name has been decided, my belly has popped, and I'm bound and determined to get a video of our son jabbing my innards. Stay tuned!