23 Weeks

Baby:
Believe it or not, she is due in less than 4 months! She is learning her parents' voices and is still doing flips. Her body is roughly 12 inches long and she now weighs just over a pound. This officially puts us past the fruit analogy and allows us to say she is the size of a small doll! She is complete with fingernails and toenails and is slowly accumulating fat tissue between her skin and muscles as her organs grow and develop. On a random note, she may develop hiccups. Yep - just like you or I could get and in some cases mom may be able to feel these episodes.

Mom:
Well at least I know where 1 pound came from - now what about the other 14 pounds?!?! :) I am happily gaining weight but suppose I should limit the chocolate-intake to some degree. The biggest change in the last week or two is that I can feel our little girl move on a regular basis. Almost every day she surprises me at work or in the car or someplace random. Every night she rewards both Adam and I by putting on a show before bedtime. I'm afraid she is already confused about that - bedtime means sleep, not wake up! ;-)

It has been a very eventful past week for us. I feel as if I've been on an emotional roller-coaster, heightened by my friend/enemy Mr. Hormone. (Seriously, it has to be male or it would make more sense - right ladies?) But the week ended well with the good news that I passed my PE (Professional Engineering) Exam. This is a huge relief because I was struggling with the idea of having to take it again in the future with a crying baby to contend with.

We celebrated our 4th Anniversary and my passing the exam on Saturday night when we went out to eat and to a movie. Not sure how many "date" nights we'll have in a few months so figured we should really take advantage of it. We ate at Red Lobster and saw Knocked Up - how fitting, huh? Our baby is not allowed to watch it for many years to come, but we both enjoyed the movie and recommend it!

Dad:
It is great being able to feel the baby move. As Billy Madison would say....(click here to listen). Everything in my life is going pretty good. I've been working long hours trying to get done with school ASAP. I've also found time to play on a couple softball teams. Besides that, I try to stay around home and hang out with Sarah as much as possible, because in about 4 months things are going to get a lot more hectic.

Sarah is really starting to show now, to the point where people know she's pregnant and not just gaining weight. It's a good thing, but also a bad thing. It's good because now Sarah doesn't have to worry about what people are thinking, but it's bad because EVERYONE asks how she's feeling or wants to tell us about a pregnancy/baby story. It's alright when friends and family ask, but waitresses, store clerks, gas station attendants, you name it!?! I don't care that our 21 year old Red Lobster waitress already has the names picked out for her kids, yet doesn't have a boyfriend. I don't want to know that the Hardee's cashier had 4 boys and Sarah "must be having a boy because she is carrying it so low". I don't want to hear stories from the Slumberland saleslady about how "all the weight goes to your hips" and how she wishes she "would have gotten that LazyBoy glider/recliner" when she had her children. At least no strangers have rubbed her belly yet.