Chestnut Week 20

Whoaaa, we're halfway there.
WhooOAH! Livin' on a prayer!

We can't quite tell you yet, but we have been trying out a name for baby Chestnut.  I can explain more if this name becomes official.  But we've been thinking about it for a long time.  The name hasn't quite "stuck" yet...but neither did Camille's name until she was born.  And now we can't imagine her name being anything else!

As an aside, though, my friend Emily sent me a link to this Onion article that I found hilarious: Smug New Mom Going To Start A Blog.  So true!

Technically, this is what's going on this week:

• Chestnut is the size of a banana - ~10 inches (CHL) and 11 ounces. (Note: Babies are measured from the crown (or top) of the head to the rump (or bottom) until about 20 weeks. After that, they are measured from crown to heel. This is because a baby's legs are curled up against the torso during the first half of pregnancy and very hard to measure.)
• Baby can hear and recognize the mother's voice.
• The toenails and fingernails are growing. 
• He has teeth buds sprouting beneath his gum line.
• The growth of hair on the rest of the body has started, including eyelashes and eyebrows.
• The skin is getting thicker.
• Testes are descending, though they have not yet passed the abdominal wall.
• The heart can now be heard with a stethoscope.  (Hmm...I'm pretty sure that's not true because I cannot hear Chestnut's heartbeat with my stethoscope.  But my friend/classmate Wenjia was generous enough to lend me her fetal doppler and it has been fun to eavesdrop on the little boy sometimes!)

Physical:

• Weight: 127 lb (+13)
• Belly circumference: 36.25 in (+7.75)
• I've gotten quite a few comments this week that my "belly has finally popped out!"  Where have these people been, pray tell?  My belly has been popping out since I was pregnant with Penelope and it has not ceased to pop out. 
• I have a theory that since Chestnut is a boy, the integrity of my skin is different due to boy hormones.  I have no basis for this theory.  My belly is more pointy (tighter) and my face does not look nearly as pudgy as I did with Penelope or Camille.
• Chestnut moves around quite a bit nowadays and I am loving it.  I'm not sure if I'm just imagining things, but I think he's a little less active than his sister. *phew*
• I have become very lordotic almost overnight!

Spiritual & emotional:

• Chin keeps saying that I have major "pregnancy brain" with Chestnut whereas I didn't have any with Camille.  I have to admit...I do have pregnancy brain.  I will open a carton of milk, pour some for Camille, and leave it out for half an hour before realizing that it's still open and unrefrigerated.  I blank out on words.  And I can never seem to find my phone!
• I had one day this week that was surprisingly tough (feeling not so clinically competent, frustrated by academic shortcomings, miscommunication with Camille's daycare person, friends flaking out on me) followed by one very strenuous day of academia.  But you know what?  I am still here and I still love my life.  So, I win.
• Some days, it just makes me smile to think that Chestnut is swimming around in amniotic fluid and drinking his own urine.

Click here to see the comparison to my pregnancy with Camille (MacNut) at the same gestational age.