Week 18 of Pregnancy

Baby (I really have to come up with a nickname soon) is the size of a…. Bell Pepper! It weighs around 5-5.5 ounces and is about 5.5-6 inches in length!  Grow, baby grow!

I think I legitimately felt the baby kick early this morning.  Little thumps here and there.  Such an amazing feeling! 

I thought I'd try a new layout to these weekly updates.  They feel a little more organized!

How I’m feeling:
Nausea has revisited me, and it isn’t a very welcomed guest.  I get nauseous around 4pm and it doesn’t go away until around 7pm.  It’s not from not eating, because I am eating a bunch.  However, food just doesn’t sound good to me this week.  I have to force myself to think of something that sounds appetizing… not fun especially with nausea.  

My back is still hurting whenever I do too much moving around, so today is a rest day from doing anything around the house.  Just walking the doggie kids around the neighborhood.  The weather has finally begun to warm up so that makes me very happy.

My energy level is good and I get spurts of energy in the mornings.  Sleeping, however, has been hard lately.  I fall asleep great but wake up around 3am and can’t get back to bed until 6:30 and that’s with forcing myself to stay in bed.  Today, I actually got two extra hours of sleep so that helped a bunch.

Physical changes:

I think my belly grew a little bit this week.  I’ve wanted to get a tape measure to measure it every week but I keep forgetting!

I think I saw a really faint Linea Nigra (black line) on my belly this morning!  Kind of like that first pregnancy test with the really faint second pink line.

I have had no new weight gain this week.  I’m still up 5 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. 

What I’ve been craving:

I’m still on an avocado kick and eat at least half of one everyday.  Almost-burnt cheese is something I can’t get enough of and I find myself making quesadillas and pushing the cheese out of them while they are cooking so that it burns a little.  Lemonade is also a big one.  I have to have at least a glass a day!  Again, with the nausea, not much food sounds good this week.

Something fun: 

Since we aren’t finding out the sex of the baby, I thought it would be fun to look up some Old Wives’ Tales about gender.  They range from Chinese numerology to putting your wedding ring over your belly.  So here is a breakdown of what we have done so far.

Old Wives’ Tale	How to tell	Our baby’s gender
Ring over belly	Ring spins in circles=Boy Ring goes swings side-to side=Girl	GIRL
Linea Nigra	Line stops at belly button=Girl Line stops at rib cage=Boy	BOY
Carrying	High=Girl Low=Boy	BOY
Heart rate	150 and above=Girl Below 150=Boy (143bpm)	BOY
Hair Growth	Little or no change to growth=Girl Fast hair growth=Boy	BOY
Chinese Numerology	Not sure how this works but I put in my birth date and baby’s EDD	BOY
Skin	More pimples than usual=Girl No change to skin=Boy	GIRL
How I look	More Beauty=Boy Less Beauty=Girl (she steals your beauty!)  I think I look a little more dull and tired	GIRL

GIRL: 3 BOY: 5

Of course there are many more tales out there but we will stick to these 8 for now. 

22 more weeks and Mike and I will become parents.  P.S. I think it just finally hit me that I am going to be a mother shortly!  

Getting "Ready" for Baby

This nesting phase is really starting to make an appearance!  I spent all of this afternoon cleaning and weeding our front yard and boy does my arm hurt and I am exhausted!

Another one of my natural enemies! 

I don’t really know why the base boards and walls need to be cleaned but its something that is on my to-do list along with many, many more things.  I’ve also been adding lots of things to Mike’s “honey-do list.”  He’s been doing almost everything that I’ve wanted… he’s doing so great and I can’t wait to see him as a father.  I’m also getting excited about moving our office into another room, we just have to paint it before getting our desk in there (also on a list I have for him… poor guy!)

I’m also trying to get our doggies ready for a new addition to the family.  Chloe, seems to really love babies but not so much kids.  Gracie, just wants to play but she doesn’t know how to play gentle yet.  They are both cuddle bugs and are starting to get really close to me.  Gracie keeps cuddling up to my belly and I think she can tell there is something different about me. Chloe has always been close to me, she was with me before Mike and I started dating and it took her awhile to warm up to him.  That’s until he brought her Milkbones every. Time. He. Saw. her.  I had to tell him to stop because she was gaining way too much weight!  We got Gracie two days after we got married and she was quite the project.  But eventually we all transitioned to becoming a family of four.  We love them so much and my only hope is that they don’t feel overthrown by the baby.   Chloe has been through a lot of changes so I hope to make the transition easy especially for her. 

Lots of hesitation in those eyes!

She explains herself!

Loving their walks!  They actually do pretty well
with a stroller... Yes, I have tested that already

Besides cleaning and reordering the house, our days are quite quiet right now and I can’t help but think about how they might be in less than 5 months.   I’m enjoying the down time and trying to get Mike to enjoy the quietness too.     

In other news, Mike and I just booked our One Year Wedding Anniversary weekend getaway!  We are going to Seattle and I am so excited about it!  It is so hard to believe that we have been married for almost a whole year ago… It definitely doesn’t seem that long. I’ve wanted to visit Seattle for quite some time (Actually, I think it started when “Grey’s Anatomy” first aired… I know, I know).  Seattle looks like such an amazing place and I can’t wait to explore!  So, if anyone has any suggestions on where we should go, let me know!  We won’t have a car and will only be there for 3 days but I’m hoping to see a bunch around the city.

Trying to get the our house ready for the baby is exhausting and I’ll be more than ready for a break in month’s time.  I’m 18 weeks tomorrow so keep you eye out for tomorrow’s weekly update!

Happy Thursday, Everyone!