Baby Baker - 18 weeks

In the interest of full disclosure, I am stealing the setup of this new, weekly list from a friend I cheered with in high school, Stephanie at Our Johnson Journey. She is pregnant with her first baby too, and has really inspired me to get my blog going because she does such a good job updating hers! (I'm not sure she even knows that I read her blog, but I bet she will now!)

1. Baby is the size of a bell pepper - about 5 1/2 inches long and almost 7 ounces.

He's busy flexing his arms and legs — movements that you'll start noticing more and more in the weeks ahead. His blood vessels are visible through his thin skin, and his ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from his head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around his nerves, a process that will continue for a year after he's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If you're having a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, but he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.

2. Foods I like this week...yogurt, mangos, cottage cheese with sunflower seeds, oatmeal with almonds and dried cranberries and cinnamon, fingersteaks, peanut butter, cinnamon rolls, avocados, guacamole, chocolate milk from Darigold!

3. Foods I don't like this week...still struggling to eat my veggies, but I'm making a veggie soup in the crock-pot today to snack on so I can get all those important vitamins and minerals. Things like chicken sausage and pork sound good to me, but once I smell them they make me kind of nauseous. (Too bad, because I love the chicken sausage from the sausage guy at the Boise Farmer's Market!)

(Liz and I at the Boise Farmer's Market, the day before my wedding!)

4. How I'm feeling physically...Fantastic and Energetic! I went swimming last night at Gold's for about 20 minutes, and it felt so good to get moving again. I'm sticking with my weekly yoga class on Tuesday nights (check out the class schedule at The Yoga Tree) and I'm looking forward to adding a pre-natal Thursday night class in as well.

5. How I'm feeling mentally...really positive about this process. I've had some worries about how quickly my bump is growing (okay, I'm wondering if twins are in there!) and if I'm further along than I think, but we have an ultrasound next Tuesday morning and I will get to ask my doctor all sorts of questions then. Jeremy thinks I worry too much, he wants me to remain calm so the baby stays calm. If he thinks I worry now...imagine what it will be like when I am actually responsible for keeping Baby Baker from harm!

6. What I'm looking forward to...finding out the gender next week! Hopefully our little meatball shows us his goods (or lack thereof!)

7. What I'm reading...Belly Laughs: The Naked Truth about Pregnancy and Childbirth by Jenny McCarthey; The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy: or Everything Your Doctor Won't Tell You by Vicki Iovine; also going to start reading Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare for our book club!