First of all, I need to say I did all of this on the airplane home from Baltimore, among other things, and when my computer's battery died, it rebooted and I lost everything. So I was being bitter and refusing to come back to it, but alas, it's time to get over it and move on, because I know you are all in suspense about how huge I am getting. 

How Far Along: 24 weeks and the size of a cantaloupe! The Bump says that his skin is finally becoming less translucent, but based on his genetic makeup, I think the poor child will never quite make it to opaque.

 

Best Moment of the Week: Seeing the inimitable, Martha-Stewart-crushing, super Alpha Princess Hess tackle being a new mom was both awe-inspiring and soul-crushing. We came prepared not to be THOSE friends, make them food, clean up for them, etc. Except their house still looks better than ours does, she had a menu planned (best chicken pot pie ever), and they just generally have their shit together in a big way. They did let us buy them ice cream. Still, watching a couple in the thick of it, who hadn't decided they were experts yet, really was encouraging, because you can see that you just learn a little bit everyday, and even if you are tired, you survive. Newborn babies really do sleep a lot. They are also very cuddly, so it was fun to hold her. I also was so impressed with Amanda's willingness to just do what works- breastfeeding was just no good for her, so she is just pumping and bottle feeding. Totally unapologetically. I love that.

Most Interesting Prego Quirk: I have started making weird noises when I try to roll over. The Boy thinks the ooph ooph is part performance, but I catch myself doing it all the time, audience or not. I am still perfectly fine doing these things, but I can see there are more steps involved (to turn over in bed, you have to go shoulders first, then kind of bring everything else with it). It really does feel like someone attached a big bowling ball on my front that I can't get off, so it creates interesting new challenges, but it is kind of fun. I can't explain the noise, but it is mostly involuntary and I swear it helps!

I Would Really Like Some: Exercise and steps. Boy, all this travel is not good for being healthy. Even worse, a weekend watching Food Network is bad for basically everything (except my soul). I am ready to be up and moving.

 

Bizarro Thing No One Warned me About: Some of your friends who either made the decision not to have kids or who just don't have kids yet will really have trouble with you being pregnant, and there is no good way I can think of to deal with it. I try REALLY hard to be a supportive, caring friend. I think it is perfectly cool to choose things for your life that I wouldn't choose, because we are different and that's probably why I like you. I understand that babies are a huge time suck, and this weekend really highlighted that well-known fact that new parents really have nothing else to talk about than their new child's bowel movements. They get sucked down the rabbit hole and can think other people would find that interesting. So I get that it changes relationships, but I am not sure what to do about it. Have any other parents been successful at maintaining friendships with adamantly anti-kids friends?

And The Boy?: He was willing to hold Lexi and only looked slightly horrified (which differs from completely horrified, where we were before). I think seeing another couple go through it has his wheels turning a little more about how we can execute those first few weeks of life. Plus, it always gives him new ideas for the registry, which is never a bad thing. He is also coming up with poop joke alternatives, because it's all been done. It's not even worth saying.

Looking Forward to: My mom being here! We are going to go glider shopping (or at least consider the philosophical differences between gliders and rockers) and paint the nursery, so we are really going to get ahead (or maybe, slightly less behind) on preparing for baby. Plus, my mom will get to come to the doctor's appointment, which I think she will really like.