22 Weeks

Before you actually have to do it, naming a baby doesn't seem like it should be a big deal.  It's fun, right?  Discussing and disagreeing with your significant other, getting veto-power on their atrocious names while lobbying for your own?  And finally choosing a name that you both love, having a way to refer to the alien growing in your uterus instead of calling it "Uncle Jesse" in your head because, well, because that's just hilarious to you.

Or something.

Little do you know that what you name your baby is a BIG DEAL to everyone around you.  Even strangers that you meet in the crib set section of Babies'R'Us.  Like everything else dealing with opinions and advice about pregnancy, rules about being rude seem to be thrown out the window.  (See also: Uninvited Stomach Touching and Everyone Has an Opinion on What You Are Eating.)  Harsh opinions are given freely, faces are made, and other names are suggested in place of whatever you choose.  It's a really strange phenomenon. 



So many couples wait until birth to announce their baby's name.  But Mike and I say, bring it on, strangers and acquaintances alike!  This is our name, and we're sticking to it!  (... Probably.)

Gloria Rose, to be exact, which kind of sounds like a My Little Pony, but Rose is a family name on Mike's side that Mike really wanted to use. 

If he was a boy he was going to be named either David Bowie or Captain Lefty.

Other than the Great Name Coming Out of 2011, morning sickness and food aversions have made a sharp return. This was my conversation with my husband regarding what to have for dinner the other day:

Him: So what should I pick up for dinner tonight?
Me: I don't know.
Him: Well, what are you craving?
Me: Nothing cheesy. Nothing fleshy like chicken. Nothing with a creamy texture. No pasta (gag). Nothing sweet. Nothing with any kind of weird sauce. Other than that, I don't care. Can we have Ramen?

Haha. Poor husband. He said I couldn't have Ramen because of the lack of nutritional value, but ended up leaving me chicken tenders because they're the one thing I could eat all day, every day.  I guess he counts chicken tenders as higher on the nutritional pyramid ...

Also, monthly checkup went great! Blood pressure is perfect, fundal height is measuring EXACTLY along with my weeks, and heartbeat sounds good.  I went for a follow-up ultrasound to check on her enlarged kidney, and both kidneys got smaller already!  It was unlikely that they were going to change much after two weeks, but the doctors needed to make sure that they at least weren't getting significantly bigger.  Now I have to go back at 32 weeks for one more ultrasound to determine if she will need to be monitored after birth. 

I had an imaging ninja for an ultrasonographer.  She switched to the 3D probe without any warning whatsoever.  Which is dangerous, because I think 3D is creepy and without knowing what she was doing it almost gave me a heart attack.  (Call me a traditionalist, but 2D is the way to go.)

I attempted a Fourth of July cake this past weekend.  It was both easier and more difficult than I thought it would be.  I didn't have a cake knife or a cake leveler so I had to use my crappy kitchen knives and my layers didn't come out evenly.  But it tasted good.