So yesterday I’m in a meeting at work and the lower right side of stomach starts like, twitching. Not visibly, but on the inside it feels like a little muscle spasm or something and since all kinds of bizarre things have happened with my body lately – a muscle spasm or little twitch doesn’t seem that out of the ordinary. Anyway – it happened maybe 3 times in about 2 minutes – and then I ignored it. This morning, I’m in a briefing and all of a sudden it happens again and I’m thinking – wtf is wrong with my stomach. And then, I wonder – is that the baby kicking?!

I’ve been feeling little flutters for a couple weeks now – kind of feels like butterflies in the stomach or popcorn popping. But nothing that felt like a kick. Nothing that felt like a human baby was actually inside my uterus. And now, just the past two days – maybe once or twice a day, I get these little thumps that I can only describe as a quick twitch or tiny muscle spasm that I THINK is the baby kicking me. So bizarre, so cool. I can’t believe there’s a human inside me.

It’s starting to make me fat too.

The other really exciting thing that happened this week is I went shopping for maternity jeans – which are just painfully expensive, especially since you hope to god you don’t have to wear them for more than a year or so – and I found an amazing pair at H&M for get this…ten flipping dollars. Ten dollars!! I mean I am a cheap person and that is cheap. I had been trying on like 27 pairs at Motherhood Maternity and feeling gross in all of them – and then I remembered a coworker had told me H&M had a small maternity section so I ventured over and found super cute (like, I would actually wear them not pregnant) jeans that were marked down from $40 to $20. I jumped for joy, and brought them to the cashier, who rang them up and said “sorry, these are mis-marked, they’re actually $10.” I was so excited I bought two more shirts (I know, that’s not exactly great money management but whatever).

Also this week I got sick again (wah wah story of my life now) – but luckily this time just a cold and not the flu. Still sucks not being able to take cold medicine, or sleep. BUT I’m now on the road to recovery and have so much to look forward to because on Friday Dan and I leave to Florida for vacation, and on Saturday we find out if baby Richards is a boy or a girl!!! Any guesses? I’ve been counting down for a while and now that the day is only 4 days away im pretty much DYING in anticipation. I can’t imagine what the weeks will feel like leading up to my due date.

Oh yea – and this week was also Valentine’s Day. Since Dan and I are pretty much broke trying to save for baby, we decided not to do gifts. But my lovely husband did come home with a sweet card, a bag of Cooler Ranch Doritos, and a homemade banana nutella coffee cake. It was like pregnancy heaven.

How far along? 18 Weeks

Total weight gain: 2 lbs (so far so good on the 1lb a week weight gain schedule per doctor’s orders)
Maternity clothes?  yep and they are so comfy
Stretch marks? thankfully not yet
Sleep: what is that? hopefully after I can breathe through my nose again I will be able to catch a couple ZZZ’s
Best moment this week: finding $10 maternity jeans and feeling what I think is baby’s first (strong enough to feel it) kick
Miss Anything? Sitting down without my stomach touching my thighs 
Movement: YA!
Food cravings: Doritos again (thanks Dan)
Anything making you queasy or sick: not really besides the rhino virus!
Gender: 4 days until (hopefully, if baby cooperates) we find out!!!!!
Labor Signs: No
Symptoms: besides having a cold, I feel pretty good this week – just some minor heartburn
Belly Button in or out? in (but belly button ring is out, per doctor’s advice)
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy, even with a cold 🙂
Looking forward to: Baby’s gender reveal and vacation in Florida!!