18 Weeks

{Our little munchkin is now the size of a bell pepper. 5 1/2 inches long from head to bum and weighing in at almost 7 ounces. (More than half a pound)

The dreaded blood drawing appointment came and went without any drama. I know, I'm more shocked than you! My good friend, Cecily, has experience actually being the one to draw blood, so she gave me some pointers. Lots of water, heart rate pumping, and a relaxing song on my ipod. I totally clung to every bit of advice she gave me and plugged into my ipod before the needle even came out. I laid back, closed my eyes, and focused on my song. I felt one tiny prick in my right arm, and then a few seconds later a tiny prick in my left arm. I never flinched, grimaced, opened my eyes, or uttered a single sound. My song wasn't even half way over when Jeremy was taking my ipod away telling me to sit up. Apparently I was done and didn't even know it. (And wasn't even aware that the nurse had been trying to get me to sit up for quite some time!) The vein in my right arm had collapsed so they moved to the left. Thank goodness for Cecily's advice to help me zone out, because I can guarantee this little adventure would have been just as bad, if not worse than the last time they tried drawing my blood. And believe me, it would be mighty hard to top the 'worseness' of that last time! It's 5 days later and my arm is still purple, black, and green. At least I have something to show for it :)

Something super fantastic? My horrific sciatic pain has gone on a scale of 1-10 from a 32 to about 3. Hallelujah! My doctor says it's because the baby has finally decided that due to his/her rapid growing, that it was time to move. Off my sciatic nerve. *sigh* ah, relief. Although now my lungs are getting squished making it difficult to breathe at times.

I am still holding firmly to the belief that this is a boy. I don't remember Courtney ever making me this uncomfortable 24/7! It must be a boy to be causing me all this trouble, right? We scheduled our ultrasound for April 25 to find out the gender, and I've got to say, this should be the best appointment ever! No blood, no needles, no naked, (well, no naked for me, we're totally checking out the naked on this little baby!!) the only thing I'm not looking forward to is the drinking all the water before the appointment and not being allowed to go to the bathroom til after the ultrasound!

But anyhow, the doctor is always super excited to do the heartbeat. She keeps saying how strong and healthy it is. When she checked the heartbeat at the last appointment, she had to keep moving around, because this little acrobat in there was flipping and rolling and twirling and twisting like crazy! So far as is going perfect :)

Something fun this week: Our baby should be able to hear our voices this week. Courtney loves kissing my belly and talking to the baby. At least he/she will have lots to hear while in there!