29 Weeks and Growing

It's hard to believe that I am now 29 weeks pregnant.  29 weeks!!!  Where did the past 7 1/2 months go?  I have had so many good intentions to document my pregnancy and somehow 29 weeks have flown by without a blog entry.  So, here's my attempt at summing up this time.

For the first 11 weeks or so, I felt tired and had that same horrible metallic taste in my mouth that I had with all the boys.  I imagine that this was the taste of hormones.  Ick!  The good news is, I made it through that phase and by 12 weeks, I was feeling really well.

Since then, I have been growing and growing at a steady clip.  I'm hungrier than usual, but I'm certainly not as hungry as I was with Cooper.  This little girl is going to eat more like me.  I can tell already.  She loves honey!  Oh, and she really doesn't like Chipotle or Qdoba mexican food.  Now, she'll tolerate more authentic mexican food, but not the Americanized types.  Isn't that hilarious?  What a strange phenomenon that a mother knows prior to her baby's birth what s/he likes and doesn't like to eat.

I have been taking thyroid meds since the beginning of this pregnancy.  Dr. Levy has consistently increased my dosage, as he has a target thyroid function number in mind and I am not yet there.  I don't really have any symptoms of an under-functioning thyroid, so I'm grateful for that.  Hopefully, our sweet baby will be fine despite my thyroid issue.

I tried for as long as I could to squeeze into non-maternity clothes, but by week 25, I had no other choice than to convert to maternity pants.  I only have 4 pair, so I have to be pretty creative with outfits for school.

Along those lines, I have been teaching French at ThunderRidge High School throughout my pregnancy.  It has been a real blessing!  My students are adorable and they have been so sweet about my ever expanding waist line.  And they seem pretty excited about the arrival of our baby girl to boot!  I can't see myself having time to teach next year, so I'm going to enjoy these last 8 weeks of teaching before my maternity leave begins.

I am actively working on setting up a baby girl nursery!  PINK!!!!!!!  I can't believe I get to buy PINK!!!!!!  I never thought we'd have a girl to buy pink for, but here we are.  We're so excited to embark on this new phase of our life journey with a baby girl in the mix.  So fun!

We have been thinking of names for our baby girl and there are a few in the mix.  There is one front runner, though, that has been sticking with us since we found out we are having a girl.  Cora Louise.  Cora is from "corazon," the Spanish word for "heart."  Louise is a tribute to my Grandma Herr who will be 94 years old this summer.  This is, by far, Keith's favorite name.  I'm trying to keep an open mind, though, as I can never really decide until I see our baby's precious little face at birth.  The other name that has been sticking with me is Karly Ann.  Karly is a tribute to my late brother Karl, who died at birth on Valentine's Day 1974.  Ann is a tribute to my mom, Annette.  So, I suppose we'll see at birth which name strikes a chord with us.  Either way, we can't go wrong.

Hopefully, I'll be able to blog more before our little girl's birth, but if I don't, be on the look out for some sweet pictures of our newborn in early April.  =)