The Baby Bump

A few of my favorite far away people have expressed interest in the evolution of my mid section (Libby the lurker, this one's for you!). Here are a few pictures that show off the blossoming of my baby bump in the past few weeks. The documentation isn't as picturesque or flattering as I would hope, but you get the main idea. :)

When my pregnancy began I took a weekly picture with hopes that someday Jonny Jr. would like to examine his growth within his mother's enlarging abdomen (or at least admire how young I once was). When there wasn't much change in my profile shot from week 11-17 the Sunday picture taking tradition slowed to an every-other Sunday tradition. Bruiser registered in the profile shot around week 19 or 20.

There comes a point in pregnancy when your budding baby bump can be confused with strangely centralized weight gain. It's also that point when you limbo with one leg in maternity pants and one leg in your loosest slacks. This stage came at about week 22 for me and jr. and is manifest in the picture below.
I am normally quite stingy when it comes to buying new clothes. Whether induced by a tight budget, a lack of patience and passion for clothes shopping or being raised by very stylish mother with a very large wardrobe, my closet is usually my last spending priority. One unexpected perk of being married to Jonathan is that he forces me to splurge on my clothing necessities. Don't get me wrong, he has less tolerance than I do for clothes shopping, but when the elastic trick simply wouldn't hold up my pants any longer he said, "I command you to buy maternity pants before I come back from interviews this week." What a great husband. He also bought me my first maternity shirt, modeled at week 23 in the picture below.

Dressing up a blossoming baby bump is quite fun (especially when you have such great family and friends who donate new and used maternity tops to the collection--thank you!). Sporting the empire waist line blouses really gives people the liberty to comment on your growth without worrying whether or not you have a baby in there. I love it when people tell me that I bloomed over night. Little bruiser likes the attention too. His kicks have steadily increased in strength and number and there have been moments when I wish I had the camera to film his "field goal" attempts. Feeling and sometimes watching his tiny body booming around inside of me is nothing short of a miracle.

Here we are at 25 weeks. Only 15ish to go (yikes)!