Over half way!

I'm over half way, but man, August 9th still feels so far away! I'm definitely feeling and looking more and more pregnant these days! My belly is official big. It pretty much popped big-time this week (week 20). It's such a crazy thing to see your belly button getting distorted. You know, people kept telling me that during the middle trimester you just feel so great, so I couldn't wait for my first trimester to end. Finally at week 17 the nausea went away and I felt fabulous! I had 1 1/2 weeks of working out again, and then started getting these crazy stretching/ cramping pains, which were no fun. I made several calls to my OBGYN, who assured me that is was just the stretching pains of the ligaments and uterus. The pains sort of evolved into this level of discomfort and painful pressure, and pretty much anytime I walked, I felt like all my insides were going to fall out. Gross, I know, but I don't know how else to describe it. I went to my 20 week appointment, described in detail what I'd been experiencing, hoping for some quick fix, only to discover that this is apparently just how I carry. I'm really short-waisted (thanks mom!) and this little one is already very low, so I was kindly informed that the aches/pains were not only not going to go away, but were only going to get worse, and that they would likely start even earlier with every pregnancy. Not the best news to hear! The only way you get through the morning sickness is believing that it's only going to last a couple of months. I would definitely much rather feel this than what I felt during my first few months, and I remind myself that some people have the nausea the entire time, so I'm grateful that I don't. I was so looking forward to feeling good enough to work out again and couldn't wait to run on the beach, but since I can't do anything high impact, I've had to improvise. I've started going to yoga and this week tried water aerobics, which was good. So, that's what I'm going to try to keep doing. Hopefully it lasts! ;) Wearing a maternity belt has really helped, so that was a great discovery. I just can't imagine what it's going to be like as my stomach gets so much bigger. Just one day at a time....

On a much happier note, I finally felt the baby today! It was really cool. People tell me that I've probably felt her before, but just didn't recognize it. Today was the first day that it was really obvious to me. It was such a crazy feeling! It might be harder for me to feel her kicking or for Dan to feel her, since my placenta is at the front of my stomach, so she has another layer to kick through, but I'm sure it will happen soon enough. What else? Lots of people have asked if we have a name picked out. So far our two favorites are either Sienna or Siena Marie (Dan and I are arguing about how to spell it) or Eva Katherine. Sienna (how I want to spell it, since I think it looks like it's spelled wrong with 1 "n") we came up with when we were backpacking in Europe a couple of years ago. We were going through Siena, Italy and just thought it would be a beautiful name for a little girl. Eva is my mom's grandma's name and Katherine is my grandma Hanson's first name, so both are family names for me, which is neat. Stay tuned!