Pregnancy Snapshot: 23 weeks pregnant

What’s happening with baby this week:
- Will start gaining about 6 ounces per week
- Eyebrows and eyelashes are forming
- Lips are becoming distinct (the better to receive a million Mommy-kisses)
- The bones of the middle ear begin to form
- The pigment that colours the baby's skin is being deposited (by whom?)
- Body is becoming more proportioned
- Eyes are formed, though the iris lacks pigmentation

The baby is about 12 inches long and weighs about a pound. (A pound! OMG!)

Symptoms to expect:
- Mood swings (hmm, a bit)
- Anxiety (YES, and it sucks)
- Indigestion, heartburn (have had these a few times over Christmas, but not lately)
- Frequent urination (not as bad as first trimester - haven't had to wake up to pee in many weeks)
- Leg cramps (nope)
- Itchy and dry skin (no more than usual)
- Movement in abdomen (um, YES)
- Braxton Hicks contractions may appear (not yet!)
- Uterus is about 1.5 inches above the belly button (it sure is, and it trips me right out)
- Total weight gain by this time should be about 15 pounds (HAHAHAHAHAHA- May feel clumsy since centre of gravity has shifted (sometimes takes 2 tries to get out of bed or off the couch)

Additional Symptoms I'm Having:
- Incredible shortness of breath. I wonder how choir will go this month?
- Sinuses are OUT OF CONTROL. This means that my nose is runny all the time, and that I snore/have apnea when I sleep. FUN!
- Breasts have entered a new phase of soreness. And my nipples are gigantic.
- My right hip hurts so much. All the time. Sometimes I want to weep in frustration.
- Weird patches of acne and/or dry skin appearing on my shoulders and elbows.

It's amazing how time flies. I know it's cliche, but it seems that I just get myself mentally adjusted to being, say, 18 weeks pregnant, and then all of a sudden I'm 19 weeks pregnant. I just get used to the fact that the baby is an entire 6 inches long, and suddenly it's 8 inches (that seems HUGE to me!). I was reading one of my many pregnancy/birth books last night and it mentioned a symptom (pre-eclampsia) that can happen "in the latter half of the pregnancy". I sort of skimmed past it, thinking, "Oh, that doesn't apply to me," until I realized that I am actually in the latter half of pregnancy! How did that happen? This is very similar to the way I still want to answer "seventeen" when someone asks me how old I am (seriously, that is my gut response).

I have only 5 weeks left of the second trimester, but I have to admit I'm feeling pretty optimistic about the third trimester. I haven't had a migraine in over 2 months. I stopped taking Diclectin on January 1st (just to see if I could) and have suffered no adverse effects. I know I will be tired in the third trimester, but from what I'm told it's a different kind of tired from that of the first trimester. I feel confident that I can handle it. Hopefully these are not Famous Last Words.