Week 22

This week nerve endings become functional enough so that Baby can feel! She may experiment with this new sense of touch by stroking her face or feeling other body parts to see how they move. You may feel Baby stretching her muscles by pushing against the muscular wall of your uterus with her feet or head.
In addition, Baby's liver is busy breaking down bilirubin, a substance formed by the breakdown of hemoglobin in blood cells. Because a baby's liver can only break down a limited amount of bilirubin, the excess is passed on to you through the placenta to filter from your liver. Baby weighs almost a pound now, and is seven to eight inches long. Although she's filling out, her body still appears wrinkled because she lacks a significant layer of fat beneath her skin.
Other developments taking place this week include:
* Baby will form distinct lips.
* If Baby is a boy, testes, which have been tucked up inside the pelvis, will begin to descend into the scrotum this week and immature sperm will form in the seminal vesicles.
* Baby's eyes will complete formation, although the iris (the colored part of the eye) will still lack pigment.
* The pancreas, essential to hormone production, will continue to develop steadily. (verybestbaby.com)

I can feel him moving around throughout the day. Those movements are so comforting to me. It's like he's saying hello! :) We're talking about names but I think it's going to be tough to reach a concensus! We went through a list a 1,000 boy names the other night and only found 2 or 3 that we both thought were a remote possibility and none we were both super excited about. Oh dear.

We have been so busy the past few days as we begin to get this house ready for a fourth Becker. We painted the downstairs bedroom this weekend and Andy and I moved down there last night. We did a lot of rearranging as we figured out where to put everything that was being stored in that bedroom closet. We got rid of the mini blinds and put new window treatments in 5 windows! Faux wood blinds are in the family room and our new bedroom. Cellular blackout shades are in Lily's new room and the baby's room. (I am VERY excited about these because until now we've been using a green sheet to make Lily's room dark! Not anymore!!!) I bought them online which seemed a little risky to me without being able to actually see them in person first and know for sure what color they'd be. But we're really happy with how they look! It's a huge improvement over mini blinds. :) We bought a "big girl bed" for Lily at Ikea last week and a new bookshelf for her "new" room. Andy put those together today. I started painting Lily's new room today but that'll probably be a several-day process since it's hard to get a lot done without someone to play with Lily. We still have to paint baby's room but that'll get done eventually. I'm just so excited about how much headway we've made on these projects and every little accomplishment makes me feel that much more ready for the arrival of our baby boy!