18 weeks and counting...

17 weeks 6 days

(don't you love Tink in the background posing with me)

(I took this picture to send to Andrew since he's been gone this week.)

Looks like maternity clothes are in need. These shorts still button. I was thinking of saying fit, but really if I were at a store and this size buying these shorts, I would not buy this size because of the tightness...so I guess that means officially they do not fit. However, I have these lovely things called Belly Bands that Jamie and Jessie have loaned me. They're amazing! They allow you to wear your regular pants and wear them unbuttoned because you wear this band and it keeps the pants up and tight enough without being uncomfortable. Jamie said it allowed her to wear many of her pants well into her pregnancy--good news for me (I hope) because of my short legs. I hope my lil baby gets long legs from his/her daddy! lol. Do you know how hard it is to find pants in short? and then try finding maternity pants in short? I wouldn't be looking already except I know I'll need them for when school starts. Luckily I'm borrowing clothes but she has long legs so most of her pants are the right size but in a long length. 

I have found that when I wear maternity clothes, it looks like there's a bump, where as normal clothes do not accentuate the bump, they cover it. 

Next week, Tuesday, June 25th, we go for our next appointment and ultrasound. This next ultrasound reveals the gender of our baby! We are not officially announcing until our gender reveal party on July 13th!! So everyone will have to wait. We have names picked though, so once we know boy or girl, we have a name to call him/her. 

Our name choices are

Baby Boy Oliver: Lucas Benjamin (Benjamin is Andrew's middle name)

Baby Girl Oliver: Lilly Grace (actually found out my great grandma's name was Lillian, so cool connection)

Last night when laying down I had one spot that felt like a little pressure and then it was like a jab, quick, happened 2 times back to back and then happened one more time. Honestly, I don't know what to make of it. It almost felt like a heart beat, but slow (obviously I know you can't feel the baby's heartbeat through you), but when I researched it, some people said there is a huge artery that runs down your stomach that you could be feeling. However, this wasn't something that continued and it wasn't rhythmic, it was quick and only happened 3 times, so I am questioning was this the baby? Or am I making something out of nothing just because I'm so excited to feel him/her and experience that? I was convinced the baby was waiting until Andrew came home, lol, the problem is, I don't know if it can be felt from the outside yet. I was touching the spot after the first 2 'jabs' then I put my hand where I felt it, and felt it again. However, because I can feel it from the inside too, I wonder if that feeling was just from the inside or did I feel it from the outside, too? 

18 week pictures below

(Tanner wanted in on the pictures and love)

He was trying to get my attention :)