Here are some recent pics of my new niece, Elizabeth! She's about 3 weeks old now and it really starting to look more and more like my brother in law every day! These were taken at my in-laws' 50th Wedding Anniversary party. Anyway, obligatory baby pictures are always worth staying up to post. I promise not to complain about being tired tomorrow...maybe.

Was it not just yesterday I told the world I was having my first baby? It seems like it was yesterday. Well, look how far I've come! 

Here I was at 17 weeks, barely looking like I'm cooking anything in the oven there. I was finally over my morning sickness and I was feeling pretty good.

At 18 weeks I looked more pregnant in my bum than I did in my belly, but I think that was because of the skirt (yeah, right!)

I don't know what happened at 19 weeks but we forgot to take a picture, so here I am at 20 weeks looking might spiffy in maternity clothes (finally). At this point, I was still feeling really awesome. I had energy to spare and spent a lot of time cleaning out the baby's room.

At 21 weeks I'm turning heads and people who previously did the "is she or is she not" thing finally have stopped guessing. This is the annoying period where everyone felt like it was ok to start rubbing my belly. I usually don't have any qualms about touching, but for some reason, I am actually pretty annoyed if you touch me a) without  my explicit permission, either in the form of me standing there and sticking my belly at you with my arms open gesturing "go ahead, rub it for luck" or if you ask first and I say "go ahead!" enthusiastically  b) if you are male and you are not my father or my husband and finally c) if you are a complete and utter stranger and don't even know my first name -- Please, don't reach out to touch my belly, no matter how inviting it looks.

Here I am at 22 weeks feeling grand! Grand like the Grand Old Opry -- it was here that I started to feel the weight of carrying a baby. I kept saying to myself, "I have HOW many more weeks left?"

At 23 weeks I started growing out of my maternity clothes. Let me tell you something about maternity wear for todays modern woman. It's not cheap, but we all knew that. But if you look hard enough and you swap your silk preferences to polyester, you can find affordable clothes. And honestly, I only plan on spending a few weeks in them at the most so it really doesn't matter if it's poly, right? I am reluctant to spend more than $14 on a shirt or even pants because I'm going and growing through them quickly. I also get bored of my clothes so I tend to like separates that I can mix and match. Then there are basics that I am super reluctant to buy like t-shirts and fancy underpants and to some extent even maternity bras, because seriously folks, what you all don't see underneath my clothes isn't too much of a bother if it hikes up a little or if I bulge a bit out of it. I know though, the time is coming that I will need these things, but I'm holding off as long as possible.

At 24 weeks I officially start my 6th month. Whew! Hard to believe I've been pregnant for 6 months already!! Well, then I remind myself that I didn't really find out I was pregnant until I was 8 weeks so I misse 2 whole months of the experience. I feel slightly jipped, but I think I'll be ok with that. So at my 24 week appointment I had to take a glucose challenge test to find out if I could have gestational diabetes. This actually worried me a bit because I was overweight before becoming pregnant and that was an added complication. So I've been really watching what I eat and trying to excercise more. Well, all that paid off because I am pretty much in the clear for developing GD! The doctor even told me that I had not yet reached my pre-pregnancy weight yet, which I was very proud of.

And here I am, 25 weeks. This picture was taken today. I'm starting to slow down more and more, especially this week. I do have borderline anemia and was told to eat more red meat and leafy greens to bring my iron up, but it's not bad enough that my doctor is willing to prescribe any supplements yet. Hopefully I'll be able to maintain my iron better with diet alone. The anemia could be causing a bit of my fatigue, but I'm thinking that the baby is getting bigger -- she weighs about a pound now. What started out at 22 weeks as "flutters" or "Popcorn popping" are now full fledged kicks and bangs around my belly. She most kicks me pretty low, around my lower pelvic region and stomps on my bladder. She's kicking low because she's currently in a breech position (feet down) which doesn't worry me too much since she has a good 4 months to turn herself around. If by 37 weeks she's still breech, the doctors will attempt an External Cephalic Version (ECV) which is basically pushing on my belly until they can coerce her to turn. Otherwise, I would have to get a c-section. And speaking of which, I plan to fight tooth and nail to avoid.

So there you have it, the last few weeks of my pregnancy in a nutshell!