18

I am 18 weeks pregnant today. My baby is the length of a bell pepper and now weighs in at about 7 ounces. It is insane that I have something inside of me that is that large! Everyday Don and I marvel over the idea of creating a human life.

This week I have started feeling ever-so-slightly better, although I am still struggling daily with nausea. I eat about 3 preggo drops every morning, which seems to subside the nausea when I get to work. I am also trying to eat continually throughout the evening (when my nausea is the worse) to see how that affects my stomach. My nurse said that my nausea could be linked with low blood sugar, which is a consequence of waiting too long between meals. Our neighbor recommended eating a spoonful of peanut butter before bed and drinking a glass of whole milk. (She is pregnant too! Just over a month ahead of me!) I am going to try this to see how this helps. However, it is probably not the best that I am allergic to peanut butter and I am lactose-intolerant... Haha, but it is worth a try! At the very least it can help my waste-line :).

The last few nights I have started trying to sleep on my side. I have read that sleeping on my back (my sleeping position of choice) can  reduce my circulation and consequentially the circulation of the baby because my blood vessels can become squished due to the added weight on my belly. I haven't been getting as restorative of rest because I am consciously having to focus on sleeping on my side, which isn't natural for me. It also makes it a lot more challenging to keep Leo (my eye pillow) on my face, which for those of you who know me know that Leo is essential to my sleep! Hopefully with time, I will become more and more comfortable with this change. In addition to tossing and turning from side-to-side, I have been dreaming like a crazy person! I have been having the most vivid dreams ALL night for the last two weeks. I think I wake up more exhausted because I am so busy on my wild, imaginary adventures.

I may finally be starting to get a real preggo-belly, but more likely than not it is just in my head! The doctor said I appear to have really strong abs, which is keeping me from showing and she said I might end up not showing much at all throughout the pregnancy. Donald laughed though! I guess he wasn't in agreement about my abs :) We are hoping that in the next few weeks I will start looking the part of a pregnant lady!

Inside of my tummy, I have been feeling a lot of strange feelings! I am wondering if this is the baby kicking and moving about, but it is difficult to tell because I have NO idea what I am feeling for. I don't think I will be able to identify it until I can actually feel the movements with my hand!

In other exciting news for the week, yesterday I was having a case of the itchy boob! At the end of the day when I was getting ready for bed, I noticed a 2 inch long bright red, blotchy spot on my left breast! I am not sure if this was the cause of the itch or this was a result of the itch! It doesn't look good though, but hopefully it will heal soon. Don thinks it is a blood blister from itching. Fortunately, it wasn't itchy today though, so that is a positive sign.

Current things I can't get enough of: grapefruit and seafood (I have to limit myself on this though!)