week 23

average size: 10.5-11.8 inches, 12.7-20.8 oz.
what's going on with baby: "Baby can listen to your voice and your heartbeat -- and even to loud sounds like cars honking and dogs barking at this stage. Also, her face is fully formed now -- she just needs a little extra fat to fill it out."


the weather has been wonderful this winter, and lately we've been thinking about what to plant in our garden this year. since i plan on making all our own baby food once she is on solids, we thought it would be a good idea to plan ahead and pick seeds for our garden that we could use for baby food! even cheaper for us that way! so here is what we came up with:

- acorn squash
- sweet potatoes
- carrots
- zucchini
- peppers
- cherry tomatoes
- pumpkins
- corn

some of those things are more for us than our little girl since they aren't really mashable (cherry tomatoes, YUM) but overall, we are planning ahead for yummy food for her. i plan on breastfeeding for a while, but we can always freeze these veggies for later. we'll still have to buy fruit from the store since those take much longer to grow (so many of them grow on trees), but that's alright. i like to save money where i can, and i think it will be cool to make a lot of her food from our own garden :) i would also really like to plant some purple yams because they are really sweet in taste, but those are proving hard to find seeds for...

i have felt her kick a few times now from the outside, but every time i try to get erik's hand there in time, she decides to stop haha...i know soon one of these days it will happen, so i guess i'll keep trying! i'm also wondering if i can hear her heartbeat from erik's stethoscope anytime soon. he has a really nice one since he's in medical school, so i figured for fun i would try here and there to see if i could hear her heartbeat. still nothing yet though. we don't want to buy a doppler or anything for reassurance because i feel her move all the time, so hearing the heartbeat would just be for fun since we already have the stethoscope.

as for everything else, i've been feeling pretty great! the growing belly is weird (finding it harder to put on socks while standing up haha), but overall no problems! i still walk for 30 minutes a day on our treadmill, and yesterday, since it was so nice out, we decided to walk to the grocery store (about a 2 mile walk total) which was great. by the end of it though, i could tell my body was ready to be done. my lower back was hurting more, so it was good to get home and sit for a bit while we ate lunch. can't believe how fast my belly is growing! but i guess that's what happens when you have a tiny torso! no where to go but OUT! next week will be a new bump photo week, and i'm interested in seeing the difference between 20 weeks and 24 weeks.

sorry for the boring post with no photos!