pregnancy update

Life is so, so good, my friends.

Last year this time, I was bawling my eyes out every night, doing something I didn't love every day.  Poor Tim.  He gave me so many blessings and so many foot rubs during that time.

But this year?  Everything is a complete 180.  I just feel so blessed.  I was blessed last year, too, but in an entirely different, sometimes-hard-to-recognize way.  This year the blessings seem so obvious.

Truth be told, though, my biggest blessing has been the same both years.

And I just love him.

Would you like to hear an update about our baby girl?

This was at 21 weeks.  And this:

Was at 22 weeks.

Now I'm 23 weeks.  And she is turning into quite the active little girl.  I felt her move for the first time during the second session of General Conference on October 6th [and I bet you can guess just how much of that particular session I payed attention to], and it's just gotten a little stronger every day.  We're learning that [in utero, at least] our little girl is a night owl - just like us.  She starts moving the most at about 10:00 at night and continues on through about 1:00am.

We are completely and totally in love.

This stage of pregnancy has been my favorite by far.  I only get mildly nauseous, like, once or twice a week. I get terrible heartburn sometimes, but that's not really any different for me.  [Thanks, GERD.]  But heck, if that's the worst it's gonna get right now, I am totally ok with that.  And the best part is feeling her move around.  It makes everything feel a little more real - more magical.

For the longest time when anybody would ask what cravings I was having, I would just laugh and say that I wasn't having any cravings - just food aversions.  And that was applicable to pretty much everything.  Now I can eat pretty much whatever I want [hallelujah!] but the only thing I consistently crave is Taco Bell.  What the random?  Tim is extremely encouraging of this particular craving, though I'm sure he would prefer Filiberto's or Chipotle.

Oh and...I think we have a name.  Actually, we're pretty sure.  We want to name her...

....Ellie.

We are absolutely in love with the name, but for some reason, I always feel hesitant about telling people what we've decided.  I don't know why.  Maybe it's because people always have all kinds of opinions, or maybe I'm scared I will change my mind, or maybe I've just heard too many stories about ultrasound techs getting confused about the gender.  Like, could our little Ellie actually be a boy?  I mean, we would be thrilled either way, but we would be starting from square one as far as names are concerned.  Because let's face it, there's no way Tim would let me call a little boy Ellie.  Men.

I'll go ahead and stop there lest any of you are getting baby-ied out.

Moral of the story?  Tim is my hero, and we already love our baby more than we could possibly express.