Bump Day: 22 Weeks

I started these weekly posts during my 13^th week of pregnancy, which is a pretty special number to me. Twenty-Two, however, is my most favorite number in the universe. It was a number randomly bestowed upon me in my freshman year of high school soccer and for the next four years, I answered to it as if it were written on my birth certificate; an interchangeable nickname. 

I can still hear my dad calling me ‘2-2’. I can hear refs reprimand ‘22’ for unsportsmanlike conduct, and I can see a green and black wooden soccer ball with the number stenciled on, standing guard in my front yard, identifying me as a Lady Lion. So when I got my ‘What to Expect’ App notification that today I am *22* weeks pregnant, I had a little fond trip down memory “Laine”. 

I wonder what our boy’s favorite number will be. I wonder if after all this time of deliberating over the perfect name, one day instead we will simply call him ‘17’ or ‘56’ or ‘2-2’. 

Before I get to this week’s bump pictures, I want to share some pretty exciting news. Our baby will have a baby BOY cousin, due just 4 weeks after him. Yes, turns out my sister is expecting another boy in November. I was a little surprised and fully expected to be gaining my first niece in 5 months time. I think my sis was a bit shocked as well.

Nana and Pops will just have to wait a little longer for a grand-daughter.

Jamie sure will have her hands full with 3 rambunctious boys! Selfishly, I’m super excited to think about how much fun our kiddos will have when we get the cousins together. Knowing that both my sister and my bestie are ‘boy moms’ just makes me excited to think of how we’ll get to bond over the experience. The fact that my sis and I’s two newest additions will be so very close in age just adds to that anticipation. 

Well, enough about her. Back to me. Here is my bump at 22 weeks. (There is really no excuse for the dog hair coating my ‘bump dress’. I swear, we were super busy yesterday and only had about 60 seconds to snap these photos, leaving little time for a lint roller. I guess I should just get used to it. I have a feeling once baby is here, the time for lint rollers will be a distant memory anyway.)    

PS. One huge development over the past week is that we're actually able to see baby kick through the skin. It was totally freaky the first time it happened. Very sci-fi. I'll spare you the video footage I took of it...