18 Weeks.

I was 18 weeks pregnant as of yesterday.

I’ve done a really poor job of getting any photos of my growing belly (because it just feels really cheesy to ask anyone to photograph my abdomen – even my own husband, for some reason), so I finally photographed myself, hence the super-poor picture quality:

I finally started really showing last week, or at least showing to the point that it thankfully resembled a baby bump more than a beer belly.

Total weight gained: 2.8 pounds.

Cravings: They have rightfully been very boyish (which makes Chris very proud of his son): mild buffalo sauce covered meats and bar-be-que, especially bar-be-que stuffed baked potatoes (from Jim N Nick’s or Full Moon BBQ, please). Oh and the new Fruit Roll-Ups actually made of real fruit are FANTASTIC.

Aversions: I still haven’t regained a lot of territory lost in my horrific stage of nausea. I’m finally starting to like Coke again (which is wonderful…and horrible all at once, I suppose), but I still can’t drink hot tea (which was a favorite pre-nausea) or much coffee, so liquids are still sketchy. Also, one of my favorite treats, Doodle’s Peach Sorbet, is still reminiscent of nausea.

(By the way, if you’ve never been to Doodle’s in Cahaba Heights, you haven’t lived.)

Movements: I was able to start feeling Noah moving around at 12 weeks, but the kicks have gotten powerful enough now that Chris was able to very decisively start to feel them last week. Baby kicks (before they are kicking you in the ribs, lungs, and heart) are my favorite part of pregnancy.

Nesting: I’m not, but Chris is. His nesting is partial he-is-excited-to-be-having-a-boy, and partial gotta-get-the-room-done-before-football-season-is-all-consuming. But as part of that, he wanted me to go ahead and decide on bedding so that we could paint the room.

So I did. And I just noticed, It oddly matches this blog background:

(by the way, those are TURTLES, not flowers, on the bedding. I was sure to point that out very clearly to Chris when I suggested this one.)

The current thought is to paint the room a light bright blue like in the turtles.

So there you go, I have actually done a full, and thorough, pregnancy update. I couldn’t be prouder of myself.