A lot of new mothers get really embarrassed about some of the changes in your body while lugging around the precious cargo. My biggest embarrassment came when milk began to leak.  I quickly learned to add a little padding to all my bras.  I was, however, disappointed that my body never did two things: make my belly button pop out and grow the Linea Nigra.  What is Linea Nigra? Nadine Beck explains,

Increased estrogen levels boost the body’s production of melanin, the natural substance that gives your skin pigment, resulting in your darkened nipples and “linea nigra,” the line running down your tummy. You may also notice melasma: dark splotches of skin on your face. These changes typically begin in the second trimester and tend to affect darker-complexioned women more noticeably. Unfortunately these lovely darkened lines are not preventable, but they usually fade soon after birth.

What about you? What was your most embarrassing pregnant moment?

This is a nice little post from a couple of years ago, but I just saw it on pinterest and had to share it here!  Is this not THE coolest pregnancy photo ever?  How I wish I’d done it with my daughters.

This little baby is such a blessing to us already during an incredibly dark time in our lives.  And God does not call us to live in fear.  Will you pray for us as we take this next step forward?  It is probably silly for me to even ask because I know you have been so faithful to pray for us already.

Go on over to the macs site and read about their latest addition AND Cora’s story.

Babies have been in my world these last few days!  My former Girl Scout had her little Kayleigh.

This precious little one was just over seven pounds and 20 inches long. Her Momma is mad because the photographer popped in a pacifier after the picture and now the baby won’t stop crying without it!  Whoops!

Another story about a baby today is about a family whose lives were saved because of a doll baby simulator. Designed to make teens think about how a pregnancy and subsequent baby will impact their lives, a local girl brought one home over the weekend.

This morning at 3:30 a.m., the baby started crying.  She woke up to care for it and heard another noise outside her bedroom – a crashing noise.  When she opened the door thinking her Mom dropped a plate or glass, she was met with a wall of smoke.  The house was burning and she managed to save her Mom, another adult, the family pet, AND the baby doll simulator.

The smoke detector did not activate even though it had been tested the weekend prior because it was a detector that worked better in detecting FLAME rather than SMOKE.  Our local fire marshal recommends getting the ionization detector and the photoelectric, along with a heat sensor.  The extra cash is worth the investment because you just never know when you’ll need it.

Here’s a photo of the house that I took this afternoon.

One of my pet peeves is going to the grocery store and seeing people pull right into the space reserved for pregnant women – or women with newborns.  While it is not against the law like parking in a handicapped space without the wheelchair placard, it would still be a nice gesture for people to get off their butts and walk and extra 20 feet!

The behavior does not really surprise me given the findings of an anonymous guest writer over at the website called asians,

Though age can be difficult to assess, particularly amongst people of color, my general conclusion was that older people (meaning people 30+) were much more likely to offer me a seat. I don’t think a single teenager or person in their early 20s offered me a seat during the entire time I was keeping tabs. I chalk this up to youngling self-absorption. How can a teenager possibly think to offer a seat to a pregnant woman when there are pressing matters like SATs, college essays, and how to ask the pretty girl with the green sweater out on a date to consider?

Interesting findings, though I am glad to not have to be the one doing the experiment!

H/T Brittney.

Photo by inha leex hale via flickr creative commons.

Little Erin says she wants us to have a baby in the house. No. Absolutely not.  Even though both my daughters have pregnant friends, I hope they wait a few years before making me a Grandma.  Erin think *I* should have another.  Again – absolutely not.

However, I truly am greatly enjoying the pregnancies of other people, especially TheoGeo who we’ve featured here before.

This week there is a little lime-sized thing in me. If all is still well, its bones are hardening, its tooth buds are forming, and its little fists are getting ready to start opening and closing and, hopefully, getting ready to be christened with good old-fashioned Irish nicknames some day. It is now technically a fetus and no longer an embryo. That’s a big upgrade, baby. But you still have a long time to go before you can rent a car.

Aw… lime sized.  Congratulations Ms. Lindsey! I’m excited for you!

When a mother carries a baby for nine months, it is such a beautiful sight to me.  Knowing that a person walks around working, shopping, cooking, loving, exploring, driving, and more – all the while carrying another life inside of her – is amazing.

If that’s not enough, the vision of the little person with today’s technology is stunning.  Poopie McPooperson (haha) shares her thoughts about the whole phenomenon.

Baby gave us a nice show. Moving a lot. Playing with her/his fingers and face. Shaking her/his head back and forth. It was my favorite ultrasound of the three. I am very excited to meet this little one!!

Lindsey is waiting to learn the sex of this baby.  I waited with both of mine only because when I had my ultrasounds, the babies still looked like kidney beans.

Have you seen the new ultrasounds where you can actually see the baby’s face?  I recently looked at a friend’s old Facebook photo showing his son in a 3D ultrasound.  It’s scary accurate how that kid looks!  From Pregnancy Weekly, you can see here how amazing the before and after pictures can look:

I’m just wowed by the whole process!

I know so many people who’ve had children before marriage.  Then I look around and see it still happens no matter how much you teach sex education in school, no matter how much you talk to your children about sex before marriage, and no matter how you lecture about using protection.

My nephew and his girlfriend are now expecting.  His sister had two babies but did marry the children’s father last summer.  Another friend of mine just announced on facebook that her ninth grader is expecting in August.  I understand the infant didn’t make the decision to be conceived and come into this world, so I say there’s no shame in their existence.

However, are our children not hearing the message about celibacy and waiting until they are married to have children?  Are they not hearing about how difficult is to raise a child when you’re a child yourself?  Do they not understand that when they have a baby when they are still in their young teens or unmarried, that their lives change completely?  That they must give up their own childhood?

I’m excited for these young parents-to-be, but I’m also sad for them.  It’s a long, difficult path they must now walk.

My pregnancies were – in hindsight – pretty regular.  I craved potatoes with my oldest daughter and the cliche’d pickles with my second kiddo.  Fourteen years later, I no longer care for dill pickles at all but my daughter could eat a full jar in one sitting.  Weird, isn’t it?

My friend Lesley is finding pasta pretty tasty right now.

I discovered my new issues after visiting my favorite Indian restaurant, Woodlands last week for what will probably be the last time for several months. Onions and tomatoes–not the best friends of a third trimester pregnant woman. Dinner was delicious, though. And by Thursday evening? I’d taken off my shoes and noted my socks looked funny. But then I took off my socks to reveal ankles that looked as if they had tumors. They’d swollen around the opening of my shoe. Fantastic.

Lesley found that fresh pasta is just what the baby ordered.  After making some fettucine with olive oil, a touch of truffle oil, and shaved parmigiano, both she and the baby were both able to sleep that night.  Now you know!!

Photo by Community Steps and Flickr Creative Commons.

I’m pretty excited this afternoon… one of my colleagues told me that if I wanted to come into the delivery room with her to take photos, she’d let me!  I don’t know if she’ll remember to call me when her time comes – and it’s getting pretty close – but I told her if she did I’d bring my camera AND extra batteries.  I also promised I wouldn’t take pictures of “her” … just the baby boy she’s expecting at any time.

After what seemed like years of no babies in my life, it feels like everyone is having babies.  My friend Lesley is entering her third trimester and she talks about her vegetarian cravings at Lesley Eats.

I’m now 26 weeks pregnant and have an obvious orb in my torso. I’ve gone from just looking fat to looking obviously pregnant. So I get a lot of questions from people who know I’m vegetarian. The most common? “Have you craved meat?” The answer? No.

My husband was really hoping I’d crave meat.

I have a lot of admiration for Lesley, but for me?  Hand over that chicken leg.