23 Weeks

I've now felt the baby kick from the outside. He usually does it in the morning while I'm laying in bed not wanting to get up and go to the bathroom. Brandon hasn't felt him yet because he is always at work at this time. I love feeling him move, it makes it so much more real. I must admit that I haven't been as excited as I think I should be with this pregnancy. Don't get me wrong, I am happy that we are adding to our family and I can't wait to meet our little guy, but these euphoric feelings usually take a back seat to feelings of fear and stress. I've been feeling pretty overwhelmed at the thought of raising two children, at the same time! Whoever thought of such a thing? I know, I know, people do it every day. They even have more than two small children to be responsible for feeding, clothing, loving, changing, cuddling, hugging, supervising, disciplining, and the list goes on and on. This just doesn't seem like something that will come easy for me, I'm a bit high strung in case hadn't noticed. So, if anyone holds the secret to balancing more than one child at a time, please fill me in, I'll pay anything.
I finally took matters into my own hands and got the report from my ultrasound. He said that everything looks great and I'm right on schedule. This kind of makes me laugh because nobody knows when babies are going to be born, unless you're having a C-Section or being induced. It seems to me that due dates are just there to drive parents crazy!
Yesterday Xander and I went to the fabric store to buy some stuff for a baby present. The lady helping us was talking to Xander and this is how it went down:

Lady: Do you have any babies at your house?

X: No

Lady: Are you going to have a baby at your house?
X: No
Me: What is this? (pointing to my belly)
X: That's my baby.
Lady: Is it a girl baby or a boy baby?
X: A boy. And these are girls (pointing to my boobs).
Me: That's enough, we don't talk about that.
X: But, they're boobies!
Lady: That's right, and they're pretty important for the baby.

We’d like to introduce you to the newest member of the raisin family: your baby. He’s a whopping 13" long (about the size of a large papaya), and weighs naught but a pound -- far less than the last Harry Potter tome. That means he has a lot of extra skin hanging around: He can’t help but resemble a raisin right now. While you won’t catch him jamming with the other Raisins anytime soon, he is definitely listening -- there is evidence that his heart actually slows at the sound of his mother’s voice, which means that you are already having a calming influence when you talk to him.

At each of your doctor’s appointments you should be handing over a sample of your urine. The lab will test your sample for the presence of sugar and protein as a way to monitor your risk of preeclampsia, which is characterized by high blood pressure and large amounts of protein in your urine. Preeclampsia can result in a decrease in the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to your baby. Thankfully, the screening done by your doctor can identify any problems early enough to prevent damage to your baby.