I’m 30 weeks pregnant now. The end is in sight. I am slowing down considerably, but everything is progressing well. Abby Jo is a very, very active baby. I find random strangers watching my belly and grinning. She’s already making sure her presence is known in the world. I’m getting bigger all the time, and am consistently gaining weight now. I don’t have much of an appetite, so I’m having to make a conscious effort to eat enough. I’m sure, once I’m not pregnant anymore, I’ll be ravenous.

From Babycenter.com:

How your baby’s growing:
Your baby’s about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds. A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it’s not very keen; even after she’s born, she’ll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she’ll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)

I haven’t made a whole lot of progress with all of the heavy duty cleaning and sorting that I need to do, but I did get the boys’ room (getting used to saying “the boys’ room” instead of “Elijah’s room”, still) cleaned out. I got four trash bags of toys out of their room to take to Goodwill. I haven’t got to Kyra’s room yet. Therefore, I haven’t got to the sorting of outgrown clothes yet. As a result, I have not yet got to sorting through the baby stuff I have stored away. I really don’t know how many clothes I have left from Kyra. I know I sold a lot of my baby girl clothes after we found out Owen was a boy. I sold a lot of my baby stuff period. I need to do an inventory and see what I still have. I only have about eight and a half weeks left before she’s here. 

This may be a repeat, I’m not sure. I thought I would tell you guys how I picked Abby’s name. All of my kids are named after someone. Kyra’s middle name, Joy, is after my childhood friend, Joy. Elijah’s middle name, Christopher, is of course after his daddy, and Owen’s middle name, Shane, is his daddy’s middle name. This time around, I really wanted to name my baby after my best friend, Amy. Chris wasn’t on board with using her first name, and so I had to get creative. Amy’s name is Amy Jo, and I call her that more often than not. So, I chose Abigail Joanna with the idea of having the same intials as Amy and having the nickname of Abby Jo. While Abby Jo is not exactly the same, it does sound like Amy Jo. As an added bonus, my middle name is Anna, so, combining Amy’s middle name with mine was a sneaky way of doing something I always thought I should do…naming a baby after me. After all, I’m the one who does all the work.  So, that was the best I could do to honor my best friend and work with my husband and his naming preferences. Name meanings are important to me, and I’m very happy with the meanings of Abby Jo’s names. Abigail means “my father’s joy” and Joanna means “God is gracious”. Coincidentally, Shane means “God is gracious”, as well, so Chris, Owen, and Abby’s middle names all have the same meaning. I thought that was cool. I find myself calling my second daughter “Abigail”, “Abby”, or “Abby Jo” with nearly the same frequency. They’re all fine with me, so you can call her whichever comes out. I’m not picky. 

And that, my friends, is how Abby Jo got her name.