25 Weeks- A little Before/Current photo for comparison!

              

                                Before: September 2011                                          Current: February 2012

How far along? 25 weeks....   Only 15 to go! WOW!
Trimester:2nd
Days to Go: 105 (as of Monday)  Eeeeh!  By the time I post again, it'll be UNDER 100 days!
Baby size: 13.5 inches, or the size of a rutabaga! Whatever that is? lol  See pic above!
Baby weight: A pound and a half! (at least!!!)
Total weight gain: ..................Well, I don't know, but it's a lot.  When we saw Carol (our midwife) last week, I had Luke come to the scale with me, I closed my eyes, and he typed into his phone what the scale said.  Then when Carol asked him for it, he just showed it to her for her to write it down, and I'd never have to know, right?  Well, when he showed it to Carol, she said, "Are you sure?!" lol!!!!  And then she made me go weigh AGAIN so she could look.  :(((  She said it was kindof a lot for one month! ha.  And then she advised me to cut out sugar and white flour, and to be walking for 2 miles a day!!! Crap.  This was especially bad news the week of our big San Antonio trip and also the week before Valentine's Day!!! haha.  So I have made an effort to use my 3Mile Power Walk DVD on the days it's cold out, and I'm trying really hard to do my Prenatal Yoga Netflix, and Luke has been encouraging me to go on walks with him on days that it's nice.  It's just hard because one day, I can do the whole 45 minute power-walk dvd AND 45 minutes of yoga and feel great!  but then last night, we tried to walk around a nice neighborhood here in town and i was DYING!  My feet hurt, my back hurt, my lower belly/round ligament pains were hurting.... it was brutal.  So it's just hard to know when I'm going to feel up to walking/exercising and when it's going to suck.  But I'm making an effort.  ;-)  My motivation, as Carol put it, is that I don't want to have a 10 pound baby naturally!  And if I'm gaining weight, so is she! Eep!
Maternity clothes? Yes to pants, but I can still wear my regular shirts/dresses and that kind of stuff.  I seem to prefer the more snug outfits that show off the belly, as opposed to the loose flowy things that just make me feel fat.  Except when I'm going to bed, and then I don't want anything touching my skin at all! I have ONE tank top that feels good to sleep in and it is quickly approaching the "tight" label too!
Stretch marks?No, not really.  My PUPPP spots are starting to go away thanks to the 6 Dandelion Root capsules I'm taking per day! (None of my other home-remedies seemed to help!)  But before they started to lighten up, I noticed they kindof have a "stretch-mark"ish appearance where the skin looks kinda shiny, but they're still smallish and round and tend to be more horizontal than normal stretchmarks on a belly, so I think that's just a coincidence. 
Sleep:  Oooh sweet sleep.  I have a feeling I'm sure going to miss you once this little girl arrives!  We've been trying to go to bed earlier, b/c it takes us a while to wind down at night.  I usually pee before I get into bed, but then before I go to sleep I have to pee again.  I have to wake up at 3:30am just about every morning to pee, and then when I wake up in the mornings that's number one on the priority list.  So I think it's not really SLEEP that I have a problem with, but just having to pee a billion times! I tried my darndest to catch up on missed sleep in San Antonio this past Thurs and Friday! Thursday I managed to stay in the hotel bed until after 7pm!!!  It was pretttttty glorious!  I was just relaxing and researching cloth diapers and registry items. It was phenomenal.  We've all been pretty snotty/coughing a lot around here lately, and I noticed one night/early morning maybe? in San Antonio, I woke myself up b/c I thought I snorted some how, but then Luke said, "No, you were SNORING!!" lol  He said he almost recorded it.  LOL  How embarrassing!  Pregnancy does weird things to your body!!!  Just a forewarning to anyone who doesn't know!  For example, (TMI warning)  you know how women with children always joke about how they sometimes pee a little bit when they sneeze or cough or laugh to hard?  Well I just figured that's because the baby coming OUT stretched things that just never quite go back all the way, but I hate to say that's happening to me already! lol.  CRAZY!  Especially with this nasty cough going around! It feels really weird when your belly shakes from coughing too!  And then, in San Antonio, one of my boobs started leaking!!!  I told Luke and he goes, "Isn't that supposed to be normal?"  Thanks honey for the support.  And so then I told Becca, and she said, "Isn't that normal?" LOL.  YES I know it's SUPPOSED to be normal, but it's WEIRD for ME! haha!!!  Really weird.  So yeah, probably too much information for the blog, but you know what? People need to know the weird things that happen to your body when you're pregnant! haha
Best moment this week: We decided on a name!!!  Wednesday before we left for San Antonio, we just kind of agreed that at this point, she couldn't possibly be anything besides "Tenley"!  So that's what we're going with!  "Tenley Sue McMillan".  Tenley we got from .... a reality tv show a few years ago! (*cough-the Bachelor-cough*) hahaha (we're totally addicted to that ridiculous show!) and Sue is after my fabulous grandmother, Mama Sue.  We thought that was special, well in and of itself, of course, but even more so because I was born on my grandparents wedding anniversary and my middle name is their last name, so that kindof continues that special little tie.  I love it! ;-)   And it's nice to have that all decided and not have to think about it anymore!!!  It was seriously stressing me out! haha
Miss anything? Free time? lol  I guess I'd better get used to that huh?  I'm trying SO hard to get the nursery done early, and be prepared, but there is just SO much to do and decide on and research!  I have been spending so much time researching and reading and asking questions... I'm enjoying it, and learning a LOT.  I'm just ready for that part to be done with so I can learn more about being a MOM and having a BABY as opposed to just everything I need to be ready to have a baby.  I also miss SUSHI!!!  Like the real stuff, not the HEB kind.  haha.  And wine!  And being able to walk a distance without pains in my belly!
Movement:Tons!  The kicks are getting stronger and stronger!  I love feeling her move, and that will definitely be something I'll miss once she's here.  It was fun at TMEA to feel her kick when we took her to the different concerts.  I tried to speculate on which instruments she might like to play based on how much she was kicking!  If more kicks=liking the instrument, then we might have a violin player on our hands!  (Lord help us!) lol!!!  Or a piano player!  Here's hoping, with long fingers like we saw in her sonogram pics!

I think she didn't really care for the trumpet player though, which is odd since her dad plays trumpet! Or maybe I have it all backwards and she was kicking because she DIDN'T like the violin and she did like the trumpet!? haha who knows!  I'm still pulling for a little french horn player!  But I DO hope she plays piano too!!! ;-)  And can sing!  I hope she has her dads ability to carry a tune and not her moms! lol
Food cravings:  Ohhh ya know, just everything I'm supposed to be avoiding! lol
Anything making you queasy or sick: No, nothing really, just brushing my teeth sometimes still.  So thankful for that.
Have you started to show yet: Ha. I look like I'm nine months preggo already.  I don't know HOW I'm going to get 4 months bigger than this!!!!!!
Gender: So happy it's a girl!  I can't wait to dress her up!  Kristin sent me this picture and said "Too many ruffles!"  But I love it!!!  This is why God gave us a girl!

Labor Signs: no!  Starting to get a little nervous about that though... I've never really been in any kind of pain before... ;-/  But I am going to do some Hynobabies/Hypnobirthing techniques and I am confident I'll be able to do it naturally and at home.  ;-)
Belly Button in or out? Shalllllow!
Wedding rings on or off?Off right this second, but I've been wearing them ok!
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy, but occasionally moody and overwhelmed.  I don't like it when my body doesn't work the way I want it to!
Weekly Wisdom: 
Current Reads:Hypnobirthing, Chicken Soup for the Expectant Mother, blogs and interwebz
Looking forward to:Picking up my glider from the store today!!!!!!! I can't WAIT to see it in the nursery! And we dropped off the crib and toy box to be painted with the dresser so I can't WAIT to see that all finished! It was more than I wanted to pay, but I'm glad I'm not the one painting it!  There is just too much else to be done!
On the "Honey Do" list:  Tonight, Luke surprised me and picked up our new rocker and ottoman (and a new bedspread for mommy and daddy's room!!!) that we had shipped Site to Store from Walmart!  Who would have thought that Walmart.com would have such GREAT stuff!!!???  And the exact same brand as others I looked at elsewhere.  So he's off the "honey do" hook for now! ;-)  I, on the other hand, can't seem to finish a night without about 50 things STILL on my to-do list no matter how hard I try to knock them out!  Next up on the Baby List for me is to sew our wedding ribbon on to our new curtains and get them hung up!  Can't wait to see how they look  with the new chair!!!

Emily and Tenley enjoying our new rocker! <3