22 Weeks (December 22nd - 28th)

I'm over 11 inches tall. My lungs are developing and my fingernails are finished!

We took a roadtrip to Michigan this week. We left the evening of the 23rd and drove to Bowling Green, KY to stay the night at a hotel. On the 24th we made the rest of the trip to spend the holidays with family and friends.

The baby shower was this week! The shower was held in the clubhouse at my parent’s condo complex in Grand Blanc, MI. Despite the weather being cold and snowy, we had about 25-30 guests who attended. As the guests arrived, we had everyone complete advice cards for the new mom. My favorite piece of advice came from Aunt Jeanna who said, “Enjoy the time she is in her crib and you know where she is because once she gets her drivers license, you will wish she was back in that crib!“. We also had everyone play a baby word scramble game. We gave out Yankee candles, holiday candles, and Bath & Body Works hand soaps for gifts. We were blessed to receive so many nice things for baby Lydia (check out the baby registries at Babies ‘R’ Us and Target to see what we received)! The baby shower invitation requested that guests bring a baby book in lieu of cards, so we now have a nice little library started for Lydia. I just want to give a giant THANK YOU to everyone for their generosity in preparation for our first little one! I also want to give special thanks to Mom & Dad Hoisington, Mom & Dad Spencer, Jeremy, Aunt Judy, and Aunt Karen for helping out with the shower, we really appreciate everything you all did!

Some other great advice I received from the new mom advice cards:

"1) Make time for yourself (even 5 minutes), everyone will reap the benefit. 2) Keep peppermint candy around, it makes an easy and safe tummy soother for baby when mixed with warm water in their bottle." -Karen Osowski

"Enjoy every moment, take pictures, and give many hugs & kisses." -Chris Kovalcik

"Never have 2 kids in diapers at one time.” -Tara Clark