Being Pregnant & Stuff

The transcendent Kate Munson told me last week that this whole thing isn't real unless there's a baby bump pic online, so here it is:

This was probably one of the most awkward pictures I've ever taken. What the heck am I supposed to do with my arms to demonstrate my pregnant-ness? 

I'm 28 weeks along now. To save you the math, that's a bit past the 6 month mark. The little fella (yes he's a boy) is due on December 17 and I'm all sorts of excited. 

The ultrasound was by far the most fun part of being pregnant. The pictures look kind of freaky, but watching it on the screen live and seeing the baby move around was way cool and I couldn't stop smiling, which was an issue because it lasted for a long time and my face got all sore. 

The ultrasound tech had a long list of all the snapshots she had to take, and one of them was the baby's open hands with all the fingers. Baby Blood, being filled with his parents' rebellious genes, refused to cooperate. He had his hands in fists whenever she tried to look at them. So she started bouncing the wand on my belly when she had the right frame up and he got all startled and opened up his hands in surprise. It was pretty much just like this:

It turns out the list of "names Aaron likes" and "names Ashley likes" don't intersect all that much- we are both kinda picky. For a while my brother Max texted me a daily name suggestion to help us out, including these gems:

Molar Susan Blood 

(that was the day before he got his wisdom teeth removed)

Anthill Eugene Blood

Compsognathus Carlile Blood

Albatross Curse Blood

Quiznos Lee Blood

Quiznos was by far our favorite, so we called him that for a while until we picked out an actual name. I won't be surprised if his Johnson Aunts and Uncles will keep calling him Quiznos after he's born. Also, why did Quiznos ever make this commercial? It's like they embraced the fact that their subs are gross, which seems like a poor marketing strategy. 

Since we would have to be incredibly cruel parents to name our firstborn after the worst sandwich chain in existence, we made a list of names we both liked and started using them at random to try them out. Aaron's favorite was Elliot, and he was way better at our little game than I was. It got to the point where the name just stuck. The moment I knew for sure was when I was saying my nightly prayer asking for the little guy to be growing like he should and I called him "Elliot" instead of "the baby" for the first time- it was stuck in my head and would be weird to change at that point. So Elliot Henry Blood it is!

I'm very fortunate in that I haven't been very sick. I'd get a little queasy sometimes, but nothing compared to what I know a lot of women have to deal with. Early on I had a lot of food aversions and couldn't eat a lot of random things that I used to love, so I actually lost some weight. Luckily that only lasted for a few months. The only thing I really craved was red meat in the form of hamburgers and canned ravioli. Lately I've been getting queasy in the evenings, and I'm learning about the joys of heartburn. All very manageable with modern marvels like Tums.  

I'm also fortunate to live in an area with lots of young families- I've gotten TONS of hand me down clothes from people at church (THANK YOU if any of you are reading this- you know who you are) and I scored some great yardsale deals on a stroller, carseat, crib, and other assorted items. I love getting ready for the baby to come and can't wait to meet him!