22 weeks

Here I am at 22 weeks at the Philly Zoo. I'm starting to get really big! About a week ago, I was changing my clothes and happened to look in the mirror, and GASP! I saw stretch marks. Right across my belly. There goes my dreams of wearing a bikini every again! Other changes that have been occurring are my feet swelling. I especially noticed it today after walking around the zoo for the entire day. My feet just don't seem to fit in my sneakers anymore! I'm waiting for people I interact with at the post office and places like that to notice that I'm pregnant and ask me about it in an excited tone. Maybe people don't do that in real life, for fear of offending someone who looks pregnant but actually isn't. But the fact that people aren't asking me about it makes me feel like they just think I'm getting fat. haha!

So here's the question we are getting all the time now: "have you thought about baby names?" The answer is, yes, we have. But I would really like to keep it a secret until his birth. TJ doesn't necessarily agree with that, but he's been sweet about it and is willing to comply. That being said, we aren't going to tell you the baby's name unless you fall under one of these categories:

a. our mom

b. our dad

c. our sister

d. our brother

And hey, maybe I'll change my mind further along, but for now, you will just have to wait for the surprise!

Choosing a baby name is an interesting process. My problem was that I had a bit of an inkling that it was a boy, and I was calling him, in my head, this name that I really liked that TJ had said he really liked too. So by the time we actually had to discuss what we would name him, I was already stuck on this name. Also, I know our baby better than TJ does at this point, so TJ would suggest some names that I just vetoed, not because it wasn't a nice name, but because I just knew that wasn't who our son is. We kept getting offended when we suggested a name that the other person didn't like, even though it's not really anything personal. And TJ suggested some names that I said we had to google image that name to see what ethnicity people of that name were. (I can't think of any good examples, though.) Anyway, the name we finally landed on was the result of insomnia. We made the mistake of discussing baby names right before bed, and then I couldn't sleep because I didn't feel settled. I paired every boy name I could think of with the first name we had already chosen, and after I came up with a good name, I finally fell asleep. And the next day, we decided that it was the perfect name!