UPDATED BELLY PICS!

I meant to add my most recent belly pics to my last post.  Here they are:



22.5 weeks pregnant with LP!

23.5 weeks!  This little guy is definitely getting big and strong!

BABIES, BABIES, AND MORE BABIES!

Sorry it’s been a while since my last post.  Things have been pretty hectic lately.  In any event, we’ve had a great couple of weeks!  About two weeks ago, Vikas’s brother, Nilesh, and his wife, Neha, welcomed their second sweet baby girl, Avni!  We couldn't be more excited for them!  We were lucky enough to be able to drive down to Indiana with Vikas's mom and dad to meet the new little one just a few days after they got home from the hospital.  And, man, is little Avni precious!  Obviously, she slept a ton, but even when sleeping, was the cutest thing!  She would smile and giggle as though she was having a funny dream J  It was great seeing big sister Anjali and, of course, catching up with Nilesh and Neha too!  Anjali is growing bigger and definitely talking quite a bit more.  It’s so fun watching her grow up.  The whole family is coming to visit in a week or two, so we’ll get to see just how much little Avni has changed in the last few weeks.  We're definitely looking forward to that!

In addition to meeting little Avni, Vikas and I had the chance to meet two more newborns last week!  My good girlfriend from high school, Natalee, had her little boy, Kingstyn, on December 29th.  But, none of us had the chance to meet him until this past week since she and her hubby, Chad, live down in South Carolina.  They came up to Michigan for their first visit last week, and our friends, Julie and Rocco, decided to have everyone over.  Hilariously, Julie had her second little girl, Sofia, on the same day as Natalee!  So, Kingstyn and Sofia are basically birth buddies :-) Not only did everyone get to meet Kingstyn (Natalee got to meet Sofia too), but we also got the chance to meet our friends, Stacy and Bryan's little peanut, Avery, who was born just a few weeks ago! They were all super cute! Besides these three new additions to the group, there were five more kiddos under 5 years old running/crawling around playing too.  The house was crazy  . . . it was perfect!  It's nice to know our little guy will have lots of friends, albeit mostly girls, to play with when he gets here :-)

BUDDHA BELLY AND BABY KICKS!!!

21 weeks, 2 days

Well, here they are.  As promised, belly pics!  I tried to wear the same outfit so you could get a good comparison, but now that there's no hiding of the belly, I think I'll just take pics in normal clothes :-) 
 

6 weeks



12 weeks, 2 days--forgive the lack of makeup please!  Apparently boys steal their mother's looks too!

  

14 weeks

15 weeks

  

16 weeks, 4 days

17 weeks 4 days

18 weeks, 2 days.  Definitely starting to pop!

20 weeks.  Whoa! LP is making his presence known :-)

21 weeks!  Isn't it amazing what can happen in a week?!

21 weeks.  My first time wearing maternity pants!

As you can see, it was almost as though my buddha belly just showed up one day during the 18th week!  Until then, it kind of just looked like I had a hard time saying no to food :-)   I'm still wearing my belly band and regular pants for the most part, but I have to admit, maternity pants are super comfy!  I wore them for the first time this past Friday!  I'm not quite ready to give up the band yet, but I'm thinking in a few weeks, I won't have a choice :-)  I swear, though, these pics don't even come close to doing justice to how big I really am (or at least feel)!

While getting used to my quickly expanding waistline has been a little hard, it's been amazing at the same time.  Knowing that I'm growing a little human inside of my stomach and all of the things that come with the process is fascinating.  The most amazing part for me so far has been feeling LP kick!  I started feeling what I thought were movements back in the 18th week, but I wasn't quite sure.  I didn't feel them every day, and they were very subtle.  But, this week, LP has been kicking me quite regularly---no pattern yet, but definitely some movements every day.  The kicks are pretty strong, so I know it's him! Actually, a few days ago he was kicking up a storm for a few minutes (like he was practicing for soccer already :-).  So, I had Vikas put his hand on my stomach, and LP kicked so hard that even Vikas could feel it!  Pretty crazy!  I have to say, I'm loving it so far. I'm sure I won't be saying that when LP is having his own little dance party in my stomach in the middle of the night . . .lol.  Let's hope that doesn't happen :-)


So, while we know that LP is going to be stubborn and active all at once, we also learned last Tuesday (ok, maybe we're just hoping), that LP is also going to be a peaceful little guy!  We had our 20 week appointment and the chance to see LP again (Dr. Lee likes to do ultrasounds as often as he can).  He confirmed that everything looks good.  When we saw him, LP was practically meditating (or, doing Aarti)!  He had his knees tucked in, arms stretched out in front of him, palms facing up, and his long fingers stretched out!  It was the cutest thing!  So, it looks like we're going to have a stubborn, but peaceful and grounded athlete on our hands :-)  Or, at least we're hoping for the peaceful part!