17 Weeks and Counting...

I'm now 17 weeks (and one day) along, and there's no mistaking the + bump sign I have. I'm amazed at how fast the weeks have flown by so far. In no time we'll know the baby's gender and be decorating the nursery and picking out baby clothes and such. Yah!! I think I'm feeling the baby move now...I've probably been feeling it for a week or so, but it's hard to know at this point because it only happens occasionally and I have no prior experience to compare it to.

I'm not sure if the feelings of inadequacy in motherhood are supposed to start this soon or not, but I already often feel that I'm not doing all I could or should for this baby. I haven't read past the first trimester chapters in my pregnancy book, I'm not eating a very healthy diet, I'm not reading parenting magazines, I'm not blogging or journaling frequently...and the list could go on. If my pregnancy attitude says anything about my parenting style, I'm going to be one laid-back momma. Now for those of you who know me well, you probably wouldn't choose 'laid-back' as one of your primary descriptors of me. I wouldn't either, but I think I've become that way about pregnancy because I'm having to focus my current attentions on applying for residency and studying for my board exam. So many life decisions and events in such a short time!!

I'm in Jackson, TN now doing a rotation in family medicine. It really stinks to be away from Chris again, but I'll get to go home over the weekends and I'm not far away if I ever need to go back during the week. In fact, staying in a hotel room by myself has probably allowed more time for focused studying, and considering I take part of my licensing exam in a month, that's a good thing.

We ordered a crib today, but it's not the one I previously posted about. It's pretty similar to the last one, as you can see in the picture below, but it has cleaner lines. I was looking online for crib bedding, and spotted this crib as one modeling bedding for sale on Etsy. I couldn't tell what brand it was or anything by the picture, so I had to search several different store websites until I found it. An hour later, Chris was driving to Babies R' Us to order it for us. For the girl who used to cry over the difficult decision of choosing one type of candy in the store, that's pretty stinking decisive.

Thanks for your interest in our lives as we continue along this journey. Please keep my brother Jared and our family in your prayers as Jared leaves Saturday for training prior to deployment to Iraq.