Eighteen Weeks

• How Far Along:  18 weeks
• Size of baby:  about the size of a bell pepper: 5 1/2 inches long
• What the Wee Ski 2.0 has right now:  his blood vessels are visible through his skin, his ears are in their final position, and a protective covering of myelin is starting to grow around his nerves (thanks, Babycenter, for the deets!)
• Total Weight Gain/Loss:  lost 3 pounds
• Maternity Clothes:  Just a few maternity tees to layer right now.  Using mostly nursing shirts that I had with Thomas (since they also double as maternity shirts).  Though this baby has "popped" earlier than I did with Thomas, as evidenced by my stretching belly button. 
• Gender:  not known (yet)
• Movement:  first time last night! 
• Sleep:  I have been sleeping a ton.  Two nights ago was bliss: me, my snoogle, all the lights off in the house, and ten interrupted hours of sleep.  Thomas gave me an awesome gift by sleeping 13 hours himself + a 3.5 hour nap.  Jonathan has been fantastic when Thomas starts calling in the middle of the night, since (somehow!) he only calls for "Daddy"!
• What I miss:  Nothing. I still can't believe that we are actually pregnant after a year. I am grateful every. single. day.
• Cravings:  Pretzels & milk.  But other than that, not really anything.  I haven't been terribly hungry and specific foods haven't been calling my name. As a foodie, it's really strange.
• Symptoms:  Mainly tiredness.  I'm usually in bed by 8 at the latest, and I am so grateful to be back at home after nearly a month of go-go-go.  Thomas and I are both loving having our routines back and getting back into a good flow.  The docs have been watching my blood sugar closely (which was a worry with Thomas, for gestational diabetes), so I have been monitoring my blood sugar each day, 4x a day.  It is not yet gestational diabetes, but it's really helping me to understand exactly how my body reacts to the food I eat.  I have been rebalancing a lot of cooking w/splenda + agave nectar + brown sugar splenda, depending on what I'm making.  Our Thanksgiving this year was not only gluten-free (for one of our friends, who has celiac), but also was very low-glycemic index friendly.  And leftovers have been awesome.  :)
• Best Moment this week:  Snuggling with Thomas.  A lot.  Being so very grateful to have a husband and son and baby in the womb that I adore and can't imagine life without.  As long as Thomas doesn't hit me in the head again with his boot.  Then we snuggle less.  :)