18 Weeks ♥

18 weeks...Baby is on the move!

Golfing in El Dorado Hills on Mother's Day...if it's a boy, he will be proud that his mommy was golfing. If it's a girl, she will appreciate that her mommy was golfing, and the fact that my golf bag is pink ;).

My oh my! This baby has been working hard on growing, growing, growing! It is still kind of hard to tell in the pictures, but the baby bump is becoming more and more pronounced and more and more items from my closet are being put on the "not going to happen" list. :)


For a while, it was hard to tell what was going on with the baby. Second trimester has been pretty smooth sailing, and trust me, I thank Jesus for that! Although I sometimes feel really tired, the first trimester nausea is completely gone and I feel great. This also means that between appointments, it's hard to know if everything is progressing as it should be. I sometimes ask the baby, "Baby, are you doing okay in there?" Apparently our baby is a bit of a prima donna...she (or he) never answers. Whatever. Luckily, we are smart grown ups and we can outsmart a tiny little unborn baby...we went to the doctor and did a "fun ultrasound". They call it "fun" because they get to take your money, which seems really fun for the doctor's office, and we get to see our little alien-esque baby, which is always fun for expecting parents, who have all the optimism and excitement of people who have never wiped up someone else's poopy bottom in the middle of the night when they really would rather be sleeping. "Fun Ultrasound" = everybody wins. 


In all seriousness, the ultrasound was incredible. The baby was on the move!! It was amazing to see the baby looking so big and like a real human. The last time we had an ultrasound, we were almost 10 weeks along, and the baby looked like a little gummy bear. The cutest gummy bear on the planet, of course, but still...a gummy bear. Now we were able to see the head, the beating heart, the brain, the arms and the legs! Not only were we thrilled that the baby has all of those things, we were absolutely dazzled watching our little one spin and twist and turn, moving and flexing its little appendages. So cute! Another amazing little development this week has been the ability to feel the baby's movements! I felt it for the first time on Monday night, while I was laying on the couch listening to Anthony play the guitar. It was wild! There are few things that are more special to me than feeling the baby's movements. It makes everything so much more real, and reminds me that my belly is growing for a reason, not just because of my good friends Ben and Jerry. :)          

**Sidenote: Anthony tells me on an almost daily basis that he wants a chubby baby...yesterday he brought me pizza for dinner, and he encourages any kind of sweets I want to eat...still trying to figure out if this is a good thing, or a very, very bad thing. I will keep you posted.**

And now...some pictures of the growing baby belly, and the star of this whole thing, the baby him(or her)self...

16 weeks! This week was a growth spurt week! I say this because  my bump grew a lot compared to previous weeks, I felt like I could eat an entire tray of lasagna all by myself, and I was extremely tired...I would fall asleep at 5:30, sleep until Anthony woke me up to go to bed, go upstairs, crawl into bed, and sleep until morning. 

We will have to start doing these pictures with clothes over the tummy...they are going to get less and less pretty... ;)

And finally...our Shining Star!

He (or she) was moving around like a champ, and then decided all of a sudden that he was tired, and just went to sleep! So funny! He woke up later and started spinning and flexing his little legs and arms. This picture is from one of the baby's mini naps. Right now the baby is head up, which the doctor said is normal for 18 weeks...hopefully he eventually flips around! :)

As you have probably guessed, we don't know the sex yet...in a few weeks we have our big ultrasound appointment where we get to look closely at the brain, heart and other organs, and we should be able to find out then if we are buying tutus or little Toms with matching bow ties! So exciting! Praise God for blessing the baby with healthy development thus far, and please keep praying with us for the continued good health of our little one. :)