24 weeks!

According to my weekly emails, my baby has gained 4 ounces since last week and is almost a foot long.  Pretty soon, she'll be taller than me! :)  At this point, she is also starting to produce surfactant--which being a respiratory therapist--is very important to me.  Surfactant production isn't complete until week 35 though--so please, Charlotte, stay put until then.  At least.  :)

Oh yeah, we decided on the name Charlotte.  Or Charlie for short.  Josh and I are both bad at keeping secrets, so it's not a big deal to me if people know the name.  And this way, people can't steal it, right!?

At this point, I'm about 5 1/2 months.  Crazy!  While I'm feeling great still, there are some things that are getting hard to do because of my growing stomach:

-Painting my toe nails.  I just attempted to do this last night.  And while I was able to actually finish painting them, it did take longer than usual and was hard to get in a good position to not make them a total mess.  Next time it will either be Josh who does this for me, or I will have to schedule a pedicure...

-Stretching after a workout.  My stomach is getting in the way of me reaching my toes and doing all the leg stretches I was once able to do.  **If anyone has any good pregnant lady stretches--please let me know**  My intense nightly leg cramps make me need to continue my stretching!!

-Sleep comfortably.  I may have to break down and buy some kind of pregnancy sleeping pillow.  But I refuse to pay the outrageous prices of that Snoogle.  Kind of like buying stuff for a wedding, whenever they add pregnancy to the beginning of an item, it automatically raises the price.  I saw this pillow at Kohls and am hoping it might be the right one for me: "Boomerang Pillow".

-Go over an hour without having to pee.  This will probably make our drive to Minneapolis next month reallllly long.  :)

And I know this list will only get longer as I get bigger!  But just as I was starting to get down on myself for not being able to do things I once was able to, I came across this list on Pinterest of 10 things to love about being pregnant!  Just a good reminder sometimes. :)  This list is stolen from this blog: (with my own thoughts added in..)

1. Elastic waist bands (Yesssss!  I love maternity jeans!  Not having the zipper and button make pants so much more comfortable..)

2. Getting my doctor's full attention for longer than five minutes (Also true.  I looove my doctor and he listens to every stupid question I ask)

3. Watching the shrimp inside me grow a face and legs  (Crazy that there's an actual person inside of me...well....fetus is probably the more appropriate term)

4. Those 300 extra calories a day to use on strawberry Pop-tarts and vending machine chips (aww,

c'mon people, you didn't eat all fruit and veggies either)  (Or an extra Captain Crunch....or ice cream...)

5. Having a good reason to not cook dinner for three months  (Yup--just ask Josh what he ate for dinner during my first trimester of nausea and his answer won't be home-cooked meals)

6. Hearing the labor stories, even the horror ones, because every labor and delivery has its own

story (even the c-sections!)  (There's just something about pregnancy that makes every person who's ever been pregnant tell you all about how they gave birth.  And for some reason, I don't even mind....yet...)

7. An excuse for re-decorating an entire room (Thank goodness for Pinterest--so many good ideas on there!  I can't wait to start!)

8. Loading up on free magazines at the OB office (Well, this one I could give or take...I've never been much of a reader :)

9. Seeing my baby's elbow jut across my belly like a shark cutting its way through the Pacific (Haven't seen an elbow yet, but during moments of intense movement the other night, I could see my stomach bounce out with every kick.  I would love to see a hand or foot protrude from that area, but I'm sure that's all just a myth that that actually happens..)

10. A sense of pending adventure  (Or the impending sense of 12 weeks off of work this summer!)

I'm not going to do the questionnaire I did last week because nothing seems to have changed since then.  But I will leave you with a picture of myself...because I'm all vain like that.. :)

I just keep getting bigger!