My Baby Girl

Yesterday I had my 24 week appointment with my doctor (whom I absolutely LOVE). I can't believe that there are only 16 weeks left until we get to meet our little sweetheart. 16 weeks is like ... nothing. I really believe that the time is going to fly by! I'm getting a little nervous about being ready for her when she gets here. My school is so crazy right now - and will probably just continue to be crazy for the rest of the year. Plus I only have a couple of weeks left in the second trimester and although I haven't gained much weight or gotten too uncomfortable yet - I anticipate that it will hit full force pretty soon. We haven't done much but talk about getting baby stuff. However, the things that we have already gotten make me SO excited! Our girl is going to be here before we know it.

I've been feeling really good lately - a little tired, but really good. It's so fun to feel her move so much during the day (and at night) - it really reassures me that she is healthy and strong. I want David to feel her move, too - so I am constantly putting his hand on my stomach when she starts wiggling. He hasn't really felt her yet, but the other night he would lean over and talk to her and she would start moving around as he talked. When he stopped talking, she would stop moving. I don't know if it was just the loud noise so close to her, or if she can already tell that it's her daddy's voice, but I like to think that she is already as in love with her papa as I am.

This pregnancy has been really interesting for me. I haven't told many people about this before, but I had a miscarriage earlier this year and it was really hard on both David and I.  Also, I was SO sick for SUCH a long time. We found out that we were going to miscarry around 9 weeks - but didn't actually miscarry until around 12-13 weeks. I was sick for pretty much three straight months. Anyway- I compare a lot of this pregnancy to that pregnancy. I haven't been nearly as sick (thank goodness!) and as soon as I hit the second trimester the sickness pretty much stopped altogether. It was wonderful! After being sick for so long before - it was like "Am I really pregnant still? I feel so good!" I also had a hard time at first being really excited. Of course I was excited to be pregnant and to have a baby - but it wasn't the same as the first time. We were SO SO excited we could hardly contain it. I had a harder time letting myself get attached because my heart had broken the first time around. It wasn't until I heard my sweet baby girls heartbeat for the first time that I really felt myself open up to her. (I also got to see her little picture on the ultrasound - and I cried basically through the whole thing. It was so amazing.)  I already love her so much - sometimes I even surprise myself with how much I love her. I mean, she isn't even here yet - how can you love someone so much that you've never even seen. I sure don't know. All I know is that she is one of the most important things in the whole world to me.

I constantly giggle at how predictable she is. If I eat food or drink water, she starts wiggling around like crazy. This girl already loves her food! She is also totally predictable, in that she follows all of the things that BabyCenter/Old Wives Tales say to look for in a girl-pregnancy... specifically that she loves sweets. Smarties, lifesavers, chocolate... oh my goodness chocolate, pretty much you name it and if it's loaded with sugar ... I want it! I've never appreciated sweets, specifically chocolate, as much as I have learned to in the past couple of months. The other day, after a particularly earnest request for something full of chocolate and sugar, David responded "Who ARE you?"  Its amazing how someone who loves salty things can transition so much into craving those sweets. I just always say "Baby girl needs _______." And she gets it.

I don't really know where I was going with this. I guess I just haven't blogged much about my sweet baby girl, even though she is pretty much all I think about! I've been really appreciating how good she is to me - she's put up with a lot of stress and mistreatment from me(no food for long stretches of time sometimes) and she responds by being a REALLY easy pregnancy and just kicking around to let me know that she is there. I'm so grateful!