Pregnancy

Here's the picture I wanted to add a few days ago. It's the picture the doctor gave Chloe of her newest sibling. I think the picture is pretty easy to decipher, but for those of you who need help: The circle at the bottom is the stomach. Above it is the head. There's a hand to the right of the stomach. To the left is the other arm, which was waving at us while the picture was being taken.

Now that I've hit the second trimester I'm slowly starting to feel a little better. I don't have to eat every two hours to ward off nausea anymore... hurray! Snacking that much only sounds fun. I quickly ran out of foods that sounded even remotely decent.

I'm still tired most of the time, but I am optimistic that this will get better very soon. (It better... my house is really suffering.)

I'm not quite at the stage of needing to wear maternity clothes yet, but pants with buttons are never buttoned anymore. And the maternity pants Mom and I shopped for two weeks ago already fit. It probably won't be much longer before I'm living in them.

I am having the most vivid dreams. My mind becomes fixated on something each night, and even after waking up and falling back asleep I will continue with the same dream. I have spent the majority of many nights tossing and turning trying to get myself to stop reciting the catechism or singing the same stanza of a hymn over and over. Weird, huh? By the way, in my dreams the baby is always a boy. Don't chalk it up to mother's intuition though -- boy was the only thing on my mind when I was pregnant with Julia. I think it's just because we already had a girl.

I'm having fun asking the girls if they want a brother or a sister and asking for name suggestions. Usually Julia wants a brother and Chloe wants a sister. The names are often jibberish, but here are some of the better names:

Chloe -- Reno (for a boy) and Chlo-mo (for a girl)

Julia -- Matthew (for a girl!) and Uck (for a boy)

Needless to say, we're not leaving the naming of the baby in the hands of the girls!