22 Weeks

22 Weeks! Baby is definitely getting noticeably bigger every week now as evidenced by the size of the belly, which is starting to look alarmingly rotund these days, and her movements are getting stronger (a little) day by day.  Matt got to feel a good thump last night, which was great! We were laying in bed looking at lists of names together, and she must have known we were talking about her! I think the name we were looking at when she popped Matt was Laqueesha (and why the HELL did that come up under a list of Gaelic origin, I ask you?), and I'm certain that was a "You two had better choose something a little better than that for me, I mean there are millions of names out there and you're looking at Laqueesha?".  She should weigh just over a pound by now, and we are now 2 weeks away from the brink of viability - I can't imagine that there is a human baby in there who albeit with MAJOR medical intervention, could survive outside the womb.  We will appreciate another 15-18 weeks inside, though, thank you very much little girl. 

Here she is in profile at 22 weeks :) 

We are having trouble with the sharpness of the photos of late. I have a great camera, a great lens, a fairly good understanding (at least I thought) of settings to use in various conditions, and most of these belly shots have been slightly out of focus or the white balance is off, or something.  In fact, I feel sorta disappointed in the Tamron lens I got for my camera this summer, but I'm 99.9% sure it's not really the lens but user error ;).  Need to work on that, and spend some time with the book I have on using this camera (2 years later, natch). Of course, for these shots, I'm also asking someone else to use my camera who doesn't spend much time with it.  Maybe I should pull out the Powershot A430 point and shoot, and we'd have better luck with these pics. Any of you photographer friends have any tips for sharper pics taken indoors after dark (my Thursday week turnover day lends us to taking these either before work or after work, in the dark with artificial light)?

With the Christmas holiday now 8 days away, I have been pushing myself to get things ready this week, and have spent late hours decorating, shopping, baking, and making projects for gifts.  I love to do this stuff this time of year, and although it feels hectic and last minute I do get satisfaction from knowing I did something creative and it turned out well enough to give someone! This week I baked approx 4 dozen molasses spice cookies for Matt's classroom holiday party (recipe originally from Cook's Illustrated, courtesy of www.simplyrecipes.com), power-shopped after work until 10 PM on Wednesday night, and made Lavender-Lime Sugar Scrub for gifts.  Consequently, my pregnant body has said ENOUGH and told me so when I tried to get out of bed today.  I literally could not stand long enough to even think of getting in the shower, so I am home, resting instead of at work today, and while I feel slightly guilty about that, I have to remind myself that my body is doing the work of two right now, and some days I will just have to rest.  (Holy Run On Sentence, or at least Overuse of Commas Batman). But, I wanted to share my scrub recipe and some photos for fun :) 

Sugar Scrub 

-Equal parts natural ("raw" or turbinado) sugar and oil - I used half Sweet Almond Oil and half Grapeseed Oil, but you can use any kind you like.  (One 24 oz bag of sugar filled 2 of these containers from Michaels)

-Essential oils for aromatherapy purposes - I used a combo of Lavender and Lime, and let me tell you it smells heavenly! Wish you had a scratch and sniff screen, cuz this is the bomb.  I know it's for skin, but I seriously wanted to taste it! 

Mix sugar, oils until all moistened and glistening, and then add essential oil - drop in a little at a time until you reach the desired potency of the scent - those babies can pack quite a punch and you don't want to inadvertently clear the sinuses of your gift recipients! Then, scoop into jars, add a square of spare fabric and tie with a ribbon. Perfect for gifting! 

So there you are, 22 weeks recapped.  6 weeks until the 3rd trimester, and also 6 weeks until they recheck the placenta previa.  Hopefully I'm not told to go on bedrest, but we'll figure that out as we need to! 

Happy last week before Christmas!