18 Weeks

Feels like just a few days ago I was writing a blog post...oh yeah, because I was late!  Thanks for keeping me punctual, Jacque ;-)

This week was full of milestones, prenatal appointments, and things baby related.  

I started to feel the baby move this Sunday!!  I had whipped up a tasty treat for Sutton's dinner and brought it into the living room.  I sat curled up on the floor, with my jeans fighting my belly, and began the tube feeding.  Then I felt it.  Tap...tap tap...tap.  Just a little tiny tap-tap-taparoo!  Jessica put her ear to my belly when we were getting ready to go to sleep and actually heard the baby kick.  It's so fun to go through this stuff together - couldn't imagine it any other way.  

Since Sunday, it seems like the baby kicks bunches when my pants are cutting off circulation to my legs.  "Hey mom - you're squishing me here!!"  My scrub pants for work are beginning the fight with my belly.  When I sit, it's more comfortable to put the waste band above the belly.  So I do.  Then I stand up and down they start to slide.  So they get re-tied under the belly.  Then sit and squish, the stand and slide...it's a vicious cycle.  I'll need to figure out a good solution soon.  I can't show my coworkers my undies.

We had an appointment at the birth center on Monday and had a delightful visit with a former co-worker on L&D turned awesome midwife.  I am so excited to be in such wonderful hands.  Those women are awesome.  The birth center appointment went well, finally gaining a little bit of weight, good strong heartbeat.

The other appointment this week was the big mid-pregnancy anatomy scan.  Our little munchkin is right on track!  The baby weighs 8 ounces and was sucking it's thumb!  INSANE!  Everything was developing right on track and we got the all clear to never go back to the high risk maternal fetal medicine people - yay!  Sad part is that this is the last ultrasound we'll have of the munchkin if all continues to go well.  

How far along:  18 weeks on the money

Total weight gain: +4.8

Maternity clothes:  Fo sho

Symptoms: Um, baby movement in my uterus!?

Stretch marks: None

Sleep:  Yes please

Best moment of this week:  Seeing that little sweetie sucking it's thumb

What's new this week: The baby is the size of a pickle.  Hmm, yum...pickles.  The weight will increase 6 fold over the next month - yikes!  So what's that...48 ounces?  Three pounds?  Yowza!  The baby can hear the outside world much better now.  Apparently "women may notice an increase in saliva" at this stage.  Interesting.  Not much of that going on here.

Miss anything:  Moments of sanity?

Movement:  Finally yes!! 

Food cravings:  Milk.  Very cold milk.  Chocolate milk.  Regular milk.  Milk for breatfast.  Milk for dinner.  Oooh and watermelon.  Hmmmm waaaatermelon

Anything making you queasy or sick:  No

Have you started to show yet: Oh yeah!  Seems like it's really popped in the last 2 weeks

Gender:  They looked today, it has genitalia :)

Labor signs: None

Belly button in or out: In 

Wedding rings on or off:  On 

Happy or moody most of the time:  Tired

Looking forward to: More baby kicks!  And now some watermelon.  Yes, I paid $8 in February for average watermelon.  And I love every juicy bite.