12.13.11: 23 weeks

Things are going well and progressing normally. I had my monthly appointment. Smudge's heart rate was in the upper 140s which is perfect. She was moving around quite a bit and I'm finally really starting to get a sense of when she is more active. All of the screening results I had completed last appointment (to check for things like Down's syndrome and other genetic disorders) came back within the normal range so Chad and I are very thankful for that. My blood pressure has been fine and they think my weight gain is appropriate (I'm up about 16 pounds so far, yikes!). My next appointment (January 10) will screen for gestational diabetes. I hear the orange drink is a lot of fun. Seems like terrible timing just after the holidays. :)

In terms of symptoms, really the only two issues I've had are the continued numbness from the pregnancy-related carpal tunnel syndrome and swelling in my feet. The doctor gave me a few tips today to help me try to manage these. However, I am certainly not complaining. It would be awesome if these were the only two negative symptoms I had! :) 

We've made significant progress around the house. We finally finished moving all of the furniture out of what will be the nursery into what will now be a guest bedroom/office. We decided to wait to put the crib together and order the glider until after we finished painting. We are hoping to do that this weekend! The bedding that we chose has purples, pinks, and greens in it and we think we want to paint the room a light green color. Chad plans to buy a pretty purple roman (window) shade to coordinate with it. We feel very fortunate. Family and friends have already been giving us gifts and awesome hand-me-downs so Smudge is well on her way to having everything she needs! We are tremendously excited if you can't tell. I can't wait to send you guys before and after pictures.

As for the name, we are still thinking about it but leaning toward Alaina Marie. Hopefully we'll decide before we have to sign her birth certificate. :)