Baby Holguin - 18 weeks

Week 17 was SO uncomfortable. The only way to describe it would be to say that it felt like I had just experienced the craziest ab and oblique workout ever. Every muscle in my abdomen ached for 3 days straight. They hurt when I walked, twisted, stood up and basically made any move in general. The only good part was that I had a great excuse to sit on the couch and watch the entire Twilight saga and demand things from Andrew because, well I needed to "rest".

Little did I know that this period of stretching and aching was the foreshadow of what was to come - my belly!! It literally popped out during week 18. Baby Holguin was working hard to make room and the work definitely paid off.

What we've learned: Our baby is a little over 6 inches long. SIX inches! And that doesn't even include the little legs. Right now baby is growing about half an inch per week so by 20 weeks he or she will be about 7.5 inches long. The baby weighs 5 1/2 ounces now and the genitalia, whether boy or girl, is mostly formed.

Cravings: Orange juice. All day, every day. I drank almost a half gallon in one day, I just can't get enough!

Daddy duty: After week 16, I can't lay on my back because the weight of my abdomen on the uterus can cut off the blood flow to the baby. It's especially difficult at night because I love sleeping on my back. Andrew has taken on the duty of monitoring my sleeping positions and he'll wake me up to remind me to turn on my side. It's really great because I'm a deep sleeper so I won't wake up on my own.

My crazy dreams: I dreamed that I went in to labor and rushed to the hospital to have the baby. Somehow I fell asleep during labor and woke up with the baby already in my arms. The nurses were congratulating me but I keep thinking, how did I fall asleep?? I wanted to be awake for the birth!!  I was so upset in the dream that I almost didn't believe it was my baby because I hadn't witnessed anything. Everyone was oohing and aahing at the baby and saying how well I did but I kept saying, "I wasn't awake!! Why didn't anyone wake me up?"

Nursery updates: I finally cleaned out our second bedroom and made space for all the cute baby stuff we'll be getting. It's such a relief to get that part done and over with and know that we are at least somewhat prepared for whats to come.
If we have a boy, I'm leaning towards a pear green color scheme for the nursery with rustic reds and eggshell blues.

If it's a girl, I would like the nursery colors to be deep purples complimented by soft lilacs and cream. 

Doc updates: We had a 16 week ultrasound a couple weeks ago and it was so awesome so see our little baby moving around and going crazy in my belly. The weirdest part is that I can't feel a thing! The baby looked healthy and normal; it had two arms, two legs, a spinal cord, a stomach, a big ole head and a really strong heartbeat. The heart rate was at 144 bpm and it's so reassuring to know that everything is growing as normal.
We have our 20 week ultrasound on December 7th and hopefully at that point we will be able to find out the gender. We've been looking forward to this appointment for a number of weeks and we will be so excited to announce it to everyone. Pin It