Pregnancy Update: 18 weeks

A few people have asked how things are going, so here's the scoop: Overall I would never know I was pregnant. I feel great most of the time, have a normal amount of energy and am able to eat whatever I want without any aversions. Sometimes I notice a "hard spot" in my lower abdomen when I bend over to reach something on the floor, and things feel a little different when I roll over in bed, but otherwise I feel normal. I can wear most of my normal clothes, altho I've had to give up the jeans and slimmer skirts I was wearing on a regular basis and move into some larger ones I had put away. A lot of the time you'll find me in my exercise pants or a skirt or dress, since both of those are more comfortable to wear. It's hard to tell that I have much of a "baby bump" yet, but there is a little one there. I think I may have felt the baby move a few times in this past week, but since this is my first pregnancy, I'm not certain that what I'm feeling is baby or just tummy twitches. According to a weekly pregnancy update I receive, our baby is approx 5-1/2" long from head to rump, and weighs approx 7 oz.

I did have a MAJOR pain experience a couple weeks ago, which gave me a flavor of what CAN happen to my body during pregnancy. It was probably a cyst that burst (normal in pregnancy), or a round ligament stretching. The doctor didn't know for sure. Thankfully the pain subsided after about 24 hours, and went away completely after about 4 days.

We're looking forward to our 20-week ultrasound in a couple weeks. Yes, we will be finding out the gender of our baby, and yes we will tell you. We want to know for a couple reasons: simply to know (we're curious!...and excited!), and also we want to have a direction to focus on for naming purposes. We didn't have that luxury with Abby and Ryan since we found out about both of them the day after they were born, so this time we're going to take advantage of the extra time we have.