23 WEEKS (PAPAYA??): Sep 4-10

• I don't know who comes up with these fruit/vegetable size-comparisons for babies in the womb... It is just so inconsistent. One website for 23 weeks says mango, one says grapefruit, one says papaya... They also say 11 inches long though. It is all very confusing! I'd venture a guess at something as long as an ear of corn or something? Maybe he weighs as much as a large mango now... about 1/2 a kg or so (just over 1 lb.). 
• Baby is forming little nipples now! (What is the function of male nipples anyway?)
• Baby's face is fully formed, but still has to fill out into those chubby little cheeks he'll have!
• Baby's lungs are starting to develop. Along with this is a substance called surfactant forming in the lungs. This will help the alveoli to stay open when baby is born. Huh!
• At this point baby is covered in sort of saggy skin...(think Shar Pei). He won't be growing in length as much as he has been over the next few weeks, but he will double in weight as he puts on some fat to fill out this saggy skin!

Charming... A face only a mother could love <3 Haha

• They say I could hear baby's heartbeat through a stethoscope placed to my belly now. Fancy that eh! Too bad I don't have a stethoscope lying around!
• For the first time a completely random person commented on me being pregnant. We were walking the dog and got talking to some man from the neighbourhood and he mentioned that we were expecting, or I'd just drank a ton of beer! Haha. Hooray for looking pregnant enough that people notice!
• I've been feeling good overall still. I'm having some back pain if I'm standing for too long, or sitting in one spot for too long (like at a desk for 8 hours every day...). Time to hit up the chiropractor!
• I get occasional heartburn, but less than a couple weeks ago. Just have to keep it to smaller, more frequent meals.
• Definitely craving sweets more than I usually do... Mmmm... cookies!

I love cookie monster... I made this huge (2'x3') rug-hooking of this picture once. I wonder what ever happened to that... Hours and hours of work!

Totally worth a watch. Cookie Monster is my spirit animal right now...

• We picked up a crib from Craigslist, so now our nursery actually looks like a nursery! I go in there sometimes on the big La-Z-Boy chair and just... sit... We also have a baby gate to set boundaries for the dog, but we let him in there sometimes to practice calm time, and to sniff all the new stuff we have. 

Glimpse of the future?

Starting to look more like a nursery! Nesting time!!

Sherlock practicing his calm-time. 

• Still feeling lots of fetal movement. This little boy is most active right when I wake up, then again around 9-10am, around 330-430pm, and then when I settle down for the night. That seems to be the pattern right now anyway... It will change! And I'm sure there are many times I miss the movement throughout the day (although it's getting harder to miss as he gets stronger!)
• Baby woke me up in the middle of the night because his kicking was so ferocious and powerful. Doing back-flips and leaping from side to side in my belly. Bizarre!
• I also woke up with a horrifying leg cramp the other day! My calf seized up and I calmly (NOT) got David to grab my foot and stretch it out for me. It was such a bad one, that my calf hurt badly for two days after that! Ah pregnancy... So fun!...