2nd Trimester

Nothing has really changed with the transition into my second trimester.  I have some energy back, but because I wasn't really struggling with nausea that isn't something has noticeably gone away.  I am starting to not really fit into my pants for sure, I will have to be wearing the belly bad regularly soon and then finally get some maternity ware, but I haven't really gained much of any weight, just a pushed out and harder stomach.

My back has started to have some twinges of just being to weak to handle my new belly, so hopefully that doesn't really continue and become an issue.  I have had problems with it in recent years and while I was not even 30 yet had one episode where I couldn't even stand up straight I had put it out bending over to pick something up off the floor, I know, pathetic.  Thank goodness for the chiropractor!  Apparently this is normal and due to a hormone, relaxin. Just like it sounds, relaxin relaxes the joints and muscles to help your pelvis expand and to loosens the joints in your hips. 
The "big stuff" is now taken care of for the baby, by this I mean things like the skeletal and organ development so now starts a period of rapid brain growth and detail work. Can you believe the baby has fingerprints.  He or she actually created them himself while swimming around in the amniotic fluid. As he moved his hands, the skin on the tips of his fingers formed unique ridges and folds. That's how no one on earth has the same fingerprints, not even identical twins!  That is pretty cool. 

Our baby's arms are now in proportion to it's tiny body, but the legs are still on the short size in comparison.
He or she also is gaining impressive skills such as practicing and controlling voluntary muscle movements so it's movements aren't so jerky and uncontrollable twitches anymore.

The fruit size ticker showed that our baby was the size of a peach and if you noticed a lemon is coming up.  Kris says he doesn't think a lemon is bigger than a peach, I guess he is used to the giant peaches we now see that must not grow in nature that way.  I think some of it is the length of a lemon in comparison to a peach.  Either way it is roughly 3.5 inches and has tripled in size from a mere three weeks ago!  I keep lotioning the belly to prepare for the time when I grow to three times my size too.

The news going on here is basically the usual.  I guess it is supposed to snow possibly up to 6 inches in the next couple of days.  World news is all about the protests now in Liberia and Wisconsin rather than Egypt.  Kris is playing rock songs on the TV for the baby.  We will enjoy a fun birthday dinner with friends this weekend (not our birthday - theirs) and maybe be helping to move Kris' brother and sister-in-law.

This pic is from parentsconnect.com