Week 20 (halfway there!)

Fruit/Veggie

Banana

Size

10 inches head to foot, & BabyCenter says he should weigh around 10 1/2 oz. but as of last week he weighed 11 oz, so he's a little above that.

Baby Changes (Source: BabyCenter.com.)

He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, & you'll see it in his first soiled diaper. (aren't you glad you know that now?)

Best Moment this Week

Our appointment/anniversary! It was a great day. I had a milkshake to get him moving for the ultrasound, which worked! At the beginning he was moving around a lot so we quickly learned he was a boy, then he chilled out & when she was filming the DVD, she was poking my stomach so he'd move & he'd have none of it. We learned he is looking completely healthy, & growing right on schedule. After our appointment we grabbed some tea at It's a Grind, bought Elliot's first two outfits at Babies R Us, then Josh took me out to a French restaurant for dinner (yum!) & then to see "Letters to Juliet." It was a great anniversary!

Gender

BOY! Elliot James. Elliot is a modern version of the name Elijah, a prophet of the Old Testament, & his name means, "My God is Yahweh" or, "My God is the Lord." James is Josh's middle name, as well as a great book of the New Testament (one of my favorites actually). We are so excited to know who is in there. One of our friends told us that he has been praying the heart of Elijah over Elliot. We know God has good plans for him!

Movement

Elliot is a kicker! I don't know that he flips around much, he just seems to kick me quite often. Which, now that we had our ultrasound, doesn't surprise me because he has Josh's strong legs! Josh has felt him kick several times now so I'm glad for that.

Food Craving

My cravings are actually backing off quite a bit. I'm trying to eat a good balance of fruit, vegetables, protein, & carbs.

Sleep

I'm sleeping fine. Some nights I lay down, my back hurts pretty bad for a good 5-10 minutes, no matter how I lay.

What I am looking forward to

Ordering the furniture, cleaning out Elliot's closet to make room for his cute little clothes, & working on the decorations I have planned for the wall above his crib... I'll wait to tell you about those.

Symptoms

Slight nausea, exhaustion (seriously, most people say "fatigue" but that so doesn't describe well enough my unlimited tiredness. Apparently a lot of women get a burst of energy in the second trimester - I don't think I'm gonna end up getting that!), loose joints (sometimes when I walk it feels like my right leg wants to dislocate itself from the rest of me), thirsty (which is still bad with my extreme dislike of water, which leads me to -), aversions (water, hot coffee, mint), lower back pain (only some days).