Our Pregnancy: 20 Weeks!

We have officially hit the mid-point in the pregnancy and after reading back through my pregnancy posts with my surrogacies, I decided I wanted to be better about doing the weekly updates for this little one too. :) It is amazing to look back and think about all those appointments, emotions, experiences, hopes, worries, and fears and then see where those little ones and their families are today!

 So, according to Baby Center:

How your baby's growing:

Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, he's measured from head to toe.)

He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).

Our little bunny baby is about the length of a banana! :) According to the ultrasound last Wednesday, she was estimated about a day behind, around 10 ounces. We'll see what weight they guesstimate at this next ultrasound. Fingers crossed she continues to grow well!

Here's the belly picture for 20 weeks:

I feel a lot bigger than I have been with my previous singletons at this point, but not as big as I was with the twins. I think I have filled out faster since I just carried and delivered multiples a year before I conceived this little one... just a guess. :) I'm feeling pretty good most of the time - definitely worn out as the days of the week tick by. By Friday, I usually just want to come home and collapse on the couch and sleep in on the weekend mornings! I have days where I'm starving and feel like I graze all day long! I really love celery sticks and ranch dressing right now. And I still get McDonald's fish fillet sandwiches and chicken nuggets with sweet & sour sauce cravings; though I behave myself most of the time and don't cave too often. I get cravings for Dunkin Donuts coffee too and have some decaf every now and then. I discovered Target brand fruit snacks this past week and have been eating a small pack almost every day. They are yummy!! I eat a banana with breakfast pretty much every day too - I love fruit and we keep apples, oranges, and grapes around all the time for snacks. I'm loving big juicy oranges I got from Sam's this week too. Mmmm...

I have had some extra time at work and have already pretty much created our baby registry for Target and Babies R Us - it's so fun picking out cute little things and imaging getting to use them in a few more months!! Right now September seems ages away, and I am looking forward to getting past the next 10 weeks and into our "30's" and counting down to baby girl's arrival... I am so excited and anxious to get to meet her and count her toes and fingers. :) I've had fun on Pinterest pinning "ideas" for the nursery and baby shower too. My SIL has been working on ideas and thoughts for it too, and it is so sweet to me that she's excited about planning it - I love that! :) I can't wait to get to that day and get to celebrate this little one's anticipated arrival with family and friends.

I am feeling movement fairly regularly at this point - my placenta is smack dab in the front, so not much in the middle, but I get thumps and bumps down low or off to the side on a fairly regular basis. Enough to be reassuring, most of the time. :) Kenneth accidentally sort of elbowed my belly the other night and right after she kicked in that same spot 5 times in a row - I thought it was a little funny that she was "talking back" at him. :)

I have two more appointments coming up for some additional testing since they couldn't get all the images they wanted on May 1st, so I'll be at the doctor's offices again on both the 14th and 15th for additional ultrasounds! Lots of sneek peaks - and hopefully another confirmation that the baby is a girl so Kenneth will stop talking about gender neutral bedding (when we were pregnant with Kent we were told early in the pregnancy that he was a girl; we didn't find out until about a month before he was born that he was, in fact, a boy!)