"And now, the toupee report..."

It's ridiculous that I haven't written in a month. I apologize to myself, the self that will read this blog later hoping to reminisce only to find a shocking lack of detail.

Nate and I saw Max for the first time last Wednesday via ultrasound technology. Hahaha... I'm sorry. Anyway, I took a mental picture of Nate standing, hands on hips, staring up at the screen as the cold wand made its way around my belly. I was in an anxious state and just wanted to know if the baby was healthy. It turns out that he is just fine, and yes, he is a boy.

I think the first thing I said in response to the baby's gender was, "I guess that means we're moving to D.C., right Nate?" Nate wanted to name our baby Max if it was a boy, but I thought the name was too trendy... and so I said that if Nate took me back east in January, we could name the boy Max. Boy = East Coast = Max.

Max, although only 8 ounces, has a giant head. That part runs in both families to some extent, so I take that as a sign of intelligence. Nate broke his mother's tailbone on his way out, and while she had fractured her tailbone earlier in life, I still associate the breakage more with Nate's giant head than the fracture. At some point, I'm going to have to come to terms with Max's orange-on-a-toothpick, but I'm guessing it'll be after I birth him.

I started feeling little kicks around 18 weeks. I guess that's early, but I've always been pretty in tune with my body. This is both good and bad. "Mommy, my kidney hurts" is a lot more helpful than "Nate, the baby won't stop kicking." I joke... the kicks aren't annoying - not yet. I had Nate put three fingertips on my belly in the exact location the baby was kicking last night, and he felt it. Pretty cool.

My nausea is pretty much gone, but I wake up every once in awhile with a terrible stomach ache. I eat a granola bar, drink some water, and go back to bed. Not so bad, but eating and sleeping is known to turn you into a sumo wrestler. Every couple nights or so I must grow enough to cause some aches in the morning, because I awake with a stiff lower back. Oh, and I started sleeping with a pillow between my knees about a month ago... but I need that less now than I did then. Nonsensical, but a lot of what I do and say these days is that way. Pregnancy does that to you.

My cravings are back to normal. That is, I crave normal things like chocolate and ice cream rather than pickles and cheesy broccoli. My sense of smell is back to normal, too.

In conclusion, the second trimester is dreamy compared to the first.