24 week update

Just a quick note to share on baby J's progress.  I am now 24 weeks (5 months) pregnant.  It is true when people say that the second trimester is the easiest trimester.  Besides being more than usually tired, I feel pretty good.  I am still exercising daily, but this mostly consists of walking, yoga and weight lifting a few days a week when I feel up to it. The baby is growing bigger and I'm definitely feeling pregnant. I can no longer bend over or see my feet (this makes putting on shoes pretty darn comical). The only regular clothes I can wear are pajamas and a small collection of very forgiving dresses.  Everything else is full-fledged maternity wear.  Of the maternity clothes I do have, I've noticed that certain shirts are starting to get short (i.e. the belly is growing). I need to go shopping soon, very soon.

The baby is starting to kick much stronger now, sometimes so hard that it wakes me up from a dead sleep. It's been fun to share these with Tom now that he can feel most of them.  I've started to notice a pattern of when the baby likes to kick and it usually goes like this: 

• First thing in the morning (good morning kicks)
• After every meal (thank you for feeding me kicks)
• Mid-afternoon, between 2-4 (when is dinner? kicks)
• At exactly 9:00pm and continues until 1:00-2:00am (I'm not ready for bed! kicks)

We still don't know the sex of the baby, but hopefully at our next appointment the baby will cooperate and we'll get to find out.  If not, we'll just have to find out the old fashioned way.  We have a list of names that we like, but we still haven't narrowed it down.  Tom is now insisting that we name the baby Jalapeno....Jalapeno Jauregui. He loves it so much, he even sings the baby a song to the tune of Lady GaGa's "Alejandro" where he replaces the name Alejandro with Jalapeno.  He is half joking, half serious when he makes suggestions like these which makes me scared for when it does come down to picking out a real name.  Luckily, I'll have crazy pregnancy hormones on my side to win that "fight".  The nickname has stuck however, and we now refer to the baby as Jalapeno or Peno.  

And last but not least, here are the latest belly photos. Apparently, I'm wearing the same shirt.  This just reinforces my earlier comment about needing to go shopping!

Yes, I am eating a pickle

24 weeks