Ouch!

These last three or four days, I've noticed my body changing alot. My lower abdomen is really starting to make itself known. Going along with that...pain! Every day for the last 4 days when I wake up in the morning, it feels like I must've done 500 situps the night before. All of my stomach-area muscles are super sore and I can literally feel them stretching. My stomach is pretty itchy too, which I've been told is normal. I use a stretch-mark reducing moisturizer twice a day and that is supposed to cut down on the itching. Not so sure about that!

Here are a few updates from my pregnancy book: This week, the baby's head and neck have straightened as bone continues to form. Slow eye movements have begun under closed eyelids. The baby has a range of foot and leg movements...it can kick, turn its feet outward and inward, curl its toes, and fan its toes. His or her heart is pumping 25 quarts of blood each day, but that will increase to about 300 quarts by the time he/she is born. The baby is very busy moving all around, but I can't feel it yet. That's because he/she isn't big enough to bump the walls of my uterus yet, and the hands and feet are still too tiny to make themselves known to me :) By now, the baby should be about 4 and a half inches long.

Yesterday, while I shopped at Maxwell Street Days and the Kohl's 50% off sale (got LOTS of cute maternity clothes), Chad and Jason worked all day on the front porch project. They shoveled a ton of gravel (Chad says it was 8 tons actually) and laid the first layer of bricks. Here's a few picture of yesterday's work:

Can you see Westin watching over the project from the glass door?

Eventually each step will be covered in a layer of small red bricks, as seen in the bottom picture on the lowest step. The retaining wall on the right of the stairs (currently cement block) will be covered in stone. The railing will also be installed soon. Looking good!

We're off to Tim and Stef Blaha's house today for swimming, volleyball and barbecue. Should be fun, although I'm a little scared of my first maternity suit. I'll let you know how THAT goes :)

Have a great day!
Love,
Mindy and Baby S.