Baby Shower!

While I was home in Montgomery, the MA girls (and a few other dear friends and family) threw Baby Harvey a magnificent shower at Susie Pearson's home. We had a delicious brunch, and Baby Harvey was lucky enough to receive some beautiful clothes and lots of fun toys and gear. I loved having a chance to spend time with so many Montgomery friends and family.

Thanks to... Katherine, Lauren, Allie, Stacy, Susan, Andrea, Ashley, Amy, Meredith, Susie, and Nee Nee!

Holly Jolly Christmas

Thomas and I traveled to Montgomery to spend our last babyless holiday season with the Neeland family. We hit all the highlights like Old Fashioned Christmas at the Country Club and the candlelight ceremony at First United Methodist. Liz and Dave were there to join the fun. We celebrated our very first Christmas this year at Ed & Nee Nee's home in Wetumpka instead of the usual location at Granny's house. It was a fabulous country Christmas with all the fixings, courtesy of Nee Nee!

Christmas is coming...

And Leslie's getting fat!

Seriously, though, the past two weeks have been pretty overwhelming in terms of my belly growing. Cutting down on the Christmas cookies would help, but I know that Baby H is just getting a lot bigger too.

We attended a very fun holiday party courtesy of Thomas's father's law firm last night. They hired one of those guys who does caricatures, and we asked the artist to make sure to include Baby Harvey in the picture. We didn't expect that he would have such a fantastic sense of humor, though....

Here we are enjoying the festivities:

25 Week Appointment

Thomas and I went to my 25 week appointment today and all is well. Baby Harvey put on quite a show for our OB, moving around the entire time and making it really difficult for the doctor to keep the Doppler machine in range to detect her heartbeat. As soon as the doctor got the wand in the right place, Baby Harvey squirmed again! Our doctor was a little amazed by how active she is...

I'm generally feeling very good these days and have lots of energy. Baby Harvey is starting to give me a little pain in my ribs though. She is big enough that she is pushing my other organs up into my ribcage and putting too much pressure there. But I don't have any other aches and pains yet, so I'm doing okay for now.

Thomas and I are looking forward to the next week as Christmas approaches. We will be going home to Alabama to show off my round belly to the Neeland clan and to see Liz & Dave for one last visit before their big wedding weekend in February. I am also getting so excited about the baby shower that my friends are going to throw on the 27th!

Rounding out

The past few weeks, Baby Harvey has continued to make her presence known. She kicks after every meal and also late at night right before I go to bed. And sometimes she kicks for no reason - just to remind me that she's there and that she's way more important than whatever else I am doing at the time!

I'm finally starting to look truly pregnant and not just "thick." I can still fit into one or two of my bigger regular sweaters, but I'm pretty much in all maternity clothes now. I'm nearing the 24 week mark, so I will soon be at the end of the 2nd trimester. Hard to believe how the time is flying.