18 weeks!

I'd hesitated to do one of these pregnancy posts because, well, there wasn't much to report. But, as you'll see, there have been some fun milestones this week. I'll take a picture and add it to this post soon.

Pregnancy: 18 weeks! http://www.baby2see.com/development/week18.html . The baby is about the size of a sweet potato and is now able to hear sounds like my voice, my blood flow and heartbeat, and loud noises outside the womb.

Sleep: No problems (knock on wood)

Gender: To be determined on May 11! I'm 50/50...Stephen thinks it's a girl...my Mom thinks it's a girl...Debbie thinks it's a boy. So, we have no idea.

Names: We've got a list going. We're trying to use family names, so that's limited our list a bit. More on this later...

Feeling: Great except two exhaustion spells last week.

Health/Exercise: The cold is finally gone. I'm still running--45mins to an hour almost every day. I've definitely slowed down and take walk breaks a lot and almost constantly need to pee, but I'm still doing it. Mueller runs with me almost every day now. We'll see how I do with the dark, cold winter mornings.

Movement/Kicks: Besides a few random pings and twinges, I hadn't felt anything. But Saturday night we were sitting on the sofa and I felt a good 10-15 kicks. It was sooo cool! I haven't felt anything consistent since then, but I'm hoping for more movement soon

Maternity Clothes: Yesterday was my first day in maternity pants and it was wonderful! Granted I had to roll them up or they would have fallen down. It was like wearing pajama pants to work. I think everyone should get a pair.

Belly Button: Still in.

Next Appointment: Since we're not finding out the gender and we are changing insurance the 1st of the year, we're not going back until January 4 (just before 22 weeks). That's the "BIG" ultrasound, where they spend a long time looking at and measuring the baby. He/she was pretty quiet at the last U/S so we're looking forward to seeing more of the baby and hopefully more movement at that appointment.

Upcoming Milestones: December 22 is 20 weeks-- Half way there!