Dear Alex,

I am super late writing to you this week, and now you’re really closer to 22 1/2 weeks along, over the size of a papaya! I’ve had a lot going on both at home & work over the past several days… Nana and Grump came to visit this past weekend. Nana & I spent Saturday working on your nursery, while Dad & Grump did some much-needed organizing out in the shed. Overall a very fun and productive weekend. Your nursery is turning out really well so far! Since we’re so close to finishing up the decorating, I think I’ll wait to write & post pictures about it.

Then on Monday morning I went back to the doctor’s office for the follow-up ultrasound to check on your stomach. It went really well, and you were very cooperative– the doctor was able to get the shots she needed almost as soon as she put the wand on my belly. She explained the issue to me much more clearly than the nurse did on the phone a couple weeks ago: apparently by this point in the pregnancy you are practicing eating/digesting by swallowing fluid & then peeing it out… they like to get a picture of the fluid in the stomach to confirm that you are doing this properly. However, if they don’t time the scan just right (i.e. if you’ve just peed out all the fluid), then the stomach will be empty. Rather than making us wait until you had swallowed more fluid, they opted to just have us come back another time. Luckily this morning you had plenty of fluid in your stomach & the doc said everything looked great. She did another quick check of the heart (heartbeat was nice & strong) and brain, took a couple of pictures for me to take home, and we were good to go! It went very quickly. Here is my favorite shot:

These skeletal face shots always crack me up! Apparently you weren’t interested in getting a picture of your profile taken– you wanted to look right at the camera. 😉 And I love that your little hand with all 5 fingers is so clear in this picture! Needless to say, Dad & I are both overjoyed and extremely relieved that you are healthy and seem to be doing very well in there.

The rest of this week has been chock-full of big meetings at work, all over town. During one of these meetings I had my first instance of a stranger asking me “when are you due?” It was an older lady and before I could answer she followed up with “pretty soon?” … which makes me think I must look huge, haha. You be the judge:

Another acquaintance at work that I see every day but don’t actually chat with much (she’s an administrative assistant for another team) came running up to me this afternoon too and, while gesturing towards my belly, was like “how did I not notice this before?!” And I definitely feel bigger… getting a lot more aches & pains associated with the growing belly, and am more easily worn out (but still not as bad as my first trimester!). So I guess while I’ve been busy with home & work stuff, you’ve been busy growing like a weed! And I can feel that you are very busy with all the squiggling around you’re doing in there. It is so neat to feel so many of your movements throughout the day, and they are definitely getting stronger, but still not quite strong enough for Dad to feel from the outside yet.

Well, I think that’s enough for this week. Until next time, keep growing little man! 🙂

All my love,
Mom