An Easter Belly

My sister, Annie, was sweet enough to do a little baby belly photo shoot this weekend.  If you want to see more you can go to my flickr page. 
I don't think it's grown much since week 14...of course there's always the chance that I could be lying to myself.  In that case, please, don't burst my bubble.  :) 

She even caught a little big brother sweetness...

By the way, we are on week number 17 now.  And, this baby is shaping up to be much like the bigger munchkin.  S/he is definitely a mover.  S/he's gone well past fluttering and straight into teeny weeny pokes, kicks, and jabs.  Sigh.  I just love, love, love it.

So far we've only managed to pick out a girl name.  We can't agree on a boy name...for that matter we also can't agree on the color of our living room.  Yikes.  Luckily, we don't get too feisty over it.  We're just left with no resolution.  Ha.  My mother has even gotten in on the naming action.  She sends me suggestions via facebook.  Still no luck. 

We've had two appointments with our midwife, and can I just say that I love the whole midwife experience?!  I feel so much more at ease this go round.  There's no one politely telling me that I'm being dumb for not wanting an epidural, drugs, and an episiotomy.  Instead our midwife is joyful about birth.  Don't get me wrong my doctor was sweet and happy, but not joyful about the actual process of birth.  She seemed much happier with surgery than with vaginal birth.  Run, if you have one of those OB's. 

One of the coolest perks of a homebirth is that you can opt to have all of your visits at home.  This, y'all, is a wonderful thing.  I cannot imagine trying to wrangle Levi in a waiting room monthly and later weekly.  There just aren't enough crayons in the western hemisphere to keep this boy in one place for that long that often.  He'd be screaming to go outside or to ride in the car...anything not to be stuck in a room full of strangers.

As far as how I'm feeling goes...uck...is the fatigue ever going to end?  With Levi I had plenty of energy by this point.  Granted, I wasn't chasing Levi then either.  I'm guessing munchkin chasing has more to do with it than the munchkin cookin' inside of me.  Morning sickness is, thankfully, long gone.  I thought it was going to last forever.  However, dry eyes and super dry skin...those seem to be here for the long haul.  Oh, and, I might be a tad overly emotional with this one...just a tad.  Poor Stephan!  He actually deals very well with the sudden springing up of tears and slight moodiness.  Luckily that seems to be slowly but surely leaving as well. 

Really, I shouldn't complain.  I'm happy to be well into the second trimester.  The first is not my cup of tea.  In fact I downright just plain ole' don't like it.  But, the second trimester...fatigue and all is starting to look much brighter.