My Pregnancy: Week 23

Baby's now the size of a large mango!

Baby's little face is fully formed...minus the baby fat, of course.  The next task at hand for baby: sprouting two teeny-tiny nipples!  Swollen from head to toe?  Increased blood flow, by now an old friend, is to blame. Consider a trip to the shoe store because loosening ligaments will cause your feet to expand even more in the weeks to come.

Turn on the radio and sway to the music.  With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance.  And...you may be able see her squirm underneath your clothes.  Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world.  Loud noises that become familiar now--such as your dag barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner--probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

These weeks really are just flying by!  In just four months I will have a little baby around the house again!  I don't think that Leila fully grasps that there's a baby inside me, since sometimes when we ask her where baby sister is she'll point to her own stomach, but she is still really sweet about giving my stomach kisses every night before she goes to bed.  We have also been having her try out our name possibilities and she says them all really cute.  Right now it is looking like Ellie is our top first name contender.

I have been feeling more pregnancy-uncomfortable this week.  More so than I ever remember being with Leila, at least this early on.  My skin is so tight most of the time and there are already times when however she is positioned makes it difficult to take a deep breath.  Thankfully the discomfort isn't constant.  It's all worth it in the end, right?