24 weeks

I was going to make this a two-fer, and include a recap from my baby shower over the wknd, but since my craftiness / recipeness is at a minimum these days, I need to save all the posts I can. Besides, the baby shower was too much goodness to share with a weekly update!

1. How far along?: 24 weeks 3 days
2. How big is baby?: According to What to Expect, she is the size of an eggplant. The app says she is 9 inches long and 1.7 lbs, which makes perfect sense because on Friday they told us she weighed 1.6 lbs. Sweet girl is measuring just a few days ahead (so pretty much right on track) except for her big head (Ben says it's for her big brain) and she's in the 54th percentile - could she be more perfect?
3. Weight gain?: UGH 8 lbs. in 6 weeks. The doctor says it's fine but ... it's still hard to swallow (obviously not hard to swallow anything else, I'm eating everything in sight!)
4. Stretch marks?: None, as far as I can see! I'm starting to lose sight of certain areas, so Ben will have to be the new stretch mark watch dog. I was in such a rush this morning to get read for work that I didn't do my cocoa butter ritual, so I'm certain they'll be everywhere when I get home (just kidding)
5. Maternity clothes?: Bought even more. This really has to stop. But I've been purging old clothes, so that helps, right? Still loving (regular) leggings, but I bought some adorable red maternity jeggings - be on the lookout for those on the regular. And some more cute tops from Old Navy - ON Maternity FTW!
6. Sleep?: Not enough, that's for sure. Work is rough, but it's good to know I still have the ability to work until 1am and function off 4 hours of sleep. 
7. Best moment last week?: The past week was amazing (minus 60+ hours of work), so this is a tough one. L has been kicking like crazy, and Ben gets to feel her pretty much every night before bed. We had our first baby shower and got to visit with all my girlfriends from HS. And we got to have an hour long ultrasound on Friday as part of the fetal echocardiogram. So much fun to just "hang out" with our girl for so long! They measured everything and said she is absolutely perfect (we already knew that)! They did a few shots with the 3D ultrasound machine and it was amazing to see that level of detail - I think she looks like Ben! Probably my absolute favorite moment was when the u/s tech tried to poke her to get her to move (she was sleeping, per usual) and she yawned and then snuggled up on her side. Cutest thing ever. I love that baby so much I can't stand it!
8. Food cravings?: Nothing in particular, but if I have something salty, I have to have something sweet to follow, and vise versa. Which basically means I'm eating a ton.
9. Symptoms?: My gums bleed at the slightest thing! It's so annoying / painful. And I've been having some tooth pain that they think may need a root canal :( Cross your fingers it's not that (I have a dentist appt Thursday). Not sure if I've mentioned this, but (sorry for TMI) my nipples get so swollen. Visibly swollen. It's awful. Aaaaand I have this weird pain / tenderness / swollen area down there that apparently came from a cut. So that's really fun.
10. Exercise?: Had to miss yoga again last week, this time to go see Portlandia (fun!) but I went this week and it was wonderful. We were never on our feet! Worked the arms and core the whole time, it was called "restorative yoga" and it was so relaxing.
11. Gender?: They reconfirmed for us on Friday - no question about it, she is very much a girl.

    

    Good thing she's still a girl, we got so many cute girly outfits at the shower!
    These are a few of my favorites (from my mom)

12. Movement?: All the time! She sleeps in until about 11, and is normally not too crazy during the day. She likes (or hates?) ice cold water and sugar. But she really gets going in the evenings, sometimes as late as 11pm. Girlfriend is not a morning person and that is all right with me.
13. Belly button?: Oh buddy, shallower by the day.
14. What I miss?: Kicking back with a beer. Bending over normally (and without pain).
15. Labor signs?: Nope.
16. What I'm looking forward to?: Doing some work on her room this wknd. My nesting has kicked in, I think, and the lack of organization in her room is making me crazy. We've just been dumping all her stuff in there and it's a DISASTER.

The second picture here is really embarrassing ...
but the first one is misleading, since the tank is not tight under my (giant) boobs
So you get both, so you have an idea of how big I really am!
No making fun ...