Welcome, second trimester!

Baby size: Lemon (3.4 inches)

I have to open this post by observing that it's still difficult for me to comprehend the fact that I'm as "baby-bumped"-out as I am.  There is absolutely no question about it: I'm pregnant.  Even when I'm out and about, strangers notice.  No amount of prenatal yoga seems to make a dent.

There's no way to compare my first pregnancy with this one. I'm two completely different sizes.

September 2009: 14 weeks

November 2009: 25 weeks

What hasn't changed, though, is my excitement over leaving the first trimester behind.  I feel better, although to be fair I haven't felt bad in the last month or so.  Both times, I've been extraordinarily lucky when it comes to the first trimester yuckies. 

We finished reading The Hunger Games to the baby.  We didn't read it consistently because I had some ambiguity about it's content, what with it being about kids forced to kill one another.

At the end of the day, though, as anyone who has ever miscarried can attest, the strongest desire is for that tiny one just to survive; to make it.  That makes "Hunger Games" a perfect fit.  Besides, we read The Illiad for the same reasons when Leah was tiny, and she doesn't seem too demented so far...

Either way, I think we'll pick up with Harry Potter again before too long.  I love, love, love that Casey reads to our babies, even before they're able to hear his voice. 

More than anything else, I have to document the sense of relief I feel at entering the second trimester.  Another milestone where the risk drops considerably, and we're that much closer to meeting this little one. 

Gratitude?  I'm up to my eyeballs in it (and that's saying something, given the belly it has to overcome to reach that high!!!).