Week 12- Lime Green

Week 12 News and updates:

• The baby is the size of a lime today. I love limes. I love the color, lime green. It's striking and loud and bright. I love the flavor that limes add to fajitas and candy and Coke. I love sour stuff, and have enjoyed Sour Patch Kids candy when I'm feeling queazy. So it seems appropriate that my baby is compared to this beautiful green citrus fruit.
• I have a horrible cold this week. Started with allergies, and turned into mayhem in my head. Where normally I would just pop a pill, I am having to tread lightly around the medicine cabinet. Allergy meds like Zyrtec and Benedryl are not great for pregnancy so you have to be careful and take only as needed. 
• I made lemon bars last night. These are AMAZING...and I highly recommend this recipe from the Pioneer Woman. They are super easy and one of the best recipes i've ever tried (and i have tried a lot of lemon bars!) I was too tired to eat them by the time they were done. So guess what I had for breakfast? ....well oatmeal first, and then I had dessert! :)
• My next ultra sound is in 10 days! I will be finished with my first trimester by then. WOW time flies! I can't wait to see the baby and how much he or she has grown. After the ultrasound we will make our official announcement to the world! We are excited to let everyone know, especially so that people around me won't think I have just let myself go. I'm a little more rotund than usual these days, so I am ready for people to know why. 
• We are still discussing names. And by discussing I mean, that I am pouring through websites trying to find the perfect one. This is a hard task, and not something we are taking lightly. It is also hard to bring my taste in colorful, artistic, creative things with Richard's very conservative, compassionate, proper taste. 

My sister was greatly concerned about the first set of names we were discussing because they were very ...well... normal. Not like me at all. When my mom told my sister these names, she said, "Christen?! She picked these? These are a decoy, mom. Don't believe her. She is lying to us."

Then she called me and with all the compassion and love and sarcasm in her heart, sat me down (over the phone) and suggested we keep looking. (I think her words were "really? REALLY?! These are terrible!") She explained to me that this was a blank canvas. We needed to not settle, but to find the names that perfectly fit our family... and she said she expected more out of me! :) I just love her and her willingness to ALWAY offer up her "opinion."  After being kindly berrated for 45 minutes, I then explained that she will love the baby, even if we name it Poop. She agreed to that at least. But the pressure is on. (I'm the firstborn you know, so I have to live up to the expectation...can't help it.)