I am still going to take them though. Even if I don't like them as much as I think I would if I were outside like the first few.
So yes, 23 week belly.
Physically, I'm still feeling pretty good even though a lot of the time I already feel huge and I know I will get SO MUCH BIGGER. I've noticed that I walk a little differently now and basic tasks have to be done differently too. Things like bending over to pick something off the floor, getting up off the couch, rolling over at night in bed, carrying things... you know, living in general :)
I bought a watermelon at the grocery store for the 4th of July and couldn't help but feel like I looked hillarious! I literally laughed at myself there in the produce section trying to pick up this giant fruit and get it in my cart. All I could think was that it felt like the same size as my now very round middle.
Sleeping has become my biggest challenge right now and it's only because I can't ever seem to get comfortable. I have stolen all but one pillow on our bed for my propping-up purposes and usually need one wedged behind my back, a second partly between my knees and partly under my belly for support, and a third and fourth behind my head.
I am the pillow queen.
(it still doesn't keep me from waking up with a little bit of a sore back and sides depending on which way I have been sleeping)
Emotionally, I am also pretty level. I feel like there is so much to do to prepare but that we still have a lot of time, even though that time will go by just as fast as these first months have. I signed us up for birthing classes, a newborn care class, a breastfeeding class, and a carseat safety class. The childbirth classes start on Collin's birthday (sorries to him) and I think it all will start to get a lot more real at that point. In a good way.
I also have done NOTHING for a nursery and that room is still full of my craft junk and Collin's music gear. We need to rent a storage space and I'm trying to reach this balance between getting it early enough to have time to move things out and get the space ready but not so early that we're paying that money for months we don't need to be. My goal for this is to have stuff cleared out and a clean, mostly empty room for after the shower at the end of August when we will most certainly be bringing in a tidal wave of baby-stuff.
I am also fully ready for myself to have at least one large-scale freak out session where I feel completely unprepared to bring a whole LIFE into this world.
That's how I find most things to go lately. Trying to balance. With timing (like the nursery prep), health (like staying active and doing my workout DVD's but being aware that my body is generally always sore somewhere), and making decisions on baby gear. I have literally gone back-and-forth between two carseats for MONTHS now. Months. Do we go with the lighter weight, lighter color, less expensive model that only seats a kid up to 22 lbs and has straps you need to adjust from the back which is potentially annoying? Or do we go with the (very slightly) heavier, darker color (may be hotter in FL), more expensive model that seats a kid up to 30 lbs and has front-adjust straps?? I get into this spiral of product reviews and message board advice on whether the strap adjustment matters that much, and then I think about the color and whether it makes that much of a difference because, hey, Florida is just freaking hot no matter what you do. Now that baby shower invitations will be going out this week I feel even more of a necessity to just decide these things and stop waffling back and forth between two choices. Thankfully Collin humors me and talks through these things with the pro's and con's because he'll use all this gear as much as I will but I can't help but think he (and his go-with-the-flow personality) honestly assumes either one will be as good as the other, and that it really doesn't matter all that much. Just pick one, and move on to the next thing we need to think about.
So we went with the front-adjust straps.
