Pregnancy Progress: Week 18

Pregnancy has been a blur with school and work this semester. I am still feeling great, no sickness just tired a lot. Now that I am 18 weeks, I cannot stop thinking about April 20th when we are scheduled to find out the gender and get our second ultrasound. I CANNOT WAIT!

I think I felt the baby kick about a week ago, but I am not totally sure, and since I haven't really felt it again, I don't think it was a kick.

Belly: My belly is definitely growing, just at a slow pace. It's so funny that I sometimes wish I was a little bigger so I felt more like I am actually pregnant. Believe it or not, it still doesn't feel real. Maybe it will feel real when I am screaming during labor and the baby pops out. Or the baby flies out, which most of my 4th grade students think will happen. Apparently they heard about babies flying or shooting out with a lot of force. That would be nice and probably less work on my part.

Cravings: Salty! Fries, fast food, plain potato chips (ruffles, not lays). I haven't had any really strong cravings, but in general it's been salty bad-for-you food. The foods I liked before, I really like now. I haven't craved many sweets. I love salad, but it's just not as appetizing anymore (but I still eat it).

Aches and pains: No morning sickness. No back pains (yet). I am still trying to run 3x a week, and about 1 mile in every time I run, my feet get really achy. Not to mention I can barely run 3 miles without taking a walking break. But I'm trying my darndest to keep it up!

Since we are wrapped up in school right now, baby isn't on the front of our minds. We haven't registered. I have very briefly thought about the nursery, but haven't planned anything yet. We haven't really thought a lot about labor let alone labor classes. We have a list of names that we like but we aren't sure about any yet. We don't know if we want an epidural or not (that is a big question-"Are you going to do all natural?"). We just don't know. I am hoping and praying that all of this will be figured out in due time, especially during this summer since I'll have more time to get excited.

I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that in 2 weeks, we will not only find out the gender, but we will be halfway through this whole pregnancy thing!! Now for pictures, since that's what people love most.

The day we found out we were pregnant (we were both deathly sick with stomach viruses right after New Years):

At 13 weeks:

At 14 weeks:

At 17 weeks: