18 weeks.

How far along? 18 weeks
Weight gain/loss: +6
Maternity clothes? I have finally bought several shirts that actual cover my belly and it is nice to have a nice warm belly again. 
Stretch marks? I haven't noticed any new ones yet. 
Sleep? Sleep has been great this week. :::knock on wood:::  
Best moment this week? We found out on Friday that Avery is going to have a little SISTER! Baby Nunley 2.0 is a girl!
Movement: This week has been great since I have been feeling definite movement. Even the ultrasound tech confirmed that the tiny bouncing I am feeling are indeed hiccups. Just like her big sister with the hiccups I tell you. 
Food cravings: Pizza this week.
Gender: A girl!
Labor signs? Nope.
Belly button in or out? In still. Ask me again in a few days. I have a feeling I will have an outie for a good portion of this pregnancy.
What I miss? Laying on my belly. It's already too big. 
What I am looking forward to? Feeling better. I have been stuffy and nasaly. I think I may have a sinus infection, but since I've never had one I am not 100%. If I don't feel better after the weekend I will be calling the doctor. I am also very excited about Thanksgiving tomorrow!
Weekly wisdom: Still sleep when you can.
Milestones: Finding out the gender and feeling movement.

Thump, Thump, Thump

Last week I ordered a fetal doppler so that Justin & I could hear the baby's heartbeat at home whenever we want. I had it sent to my office so that someone would be there if it required a signature -- big mistake.

I had been waiting for a week and tracking it's travels as much as 3 times a day. On the day UPS said it was out for delivery I was so excited I could hardly stand it. It arrived while I was in a meeting, so I didn't see it until about 3:30, which was probably a blessing in disguise because the hour and a half between then and 5:00 when I was able to go home was the longest 90 minutes I've experienced in a long time!

I finally made it home and luckily Justin was off early that day, so he was able to be home when I tried it out. After reading the instructions on the way home (don't worry, I carpool so I wasn't driving and reading at the same time!) I was sure I'd have no problem using this miracle instrument.

NOT.

It took me about 10 minutes to figure out what exactly it was I was hearing until I found the heartbeat. Finally after some adjustments with the volume and amount of lotion we finally heard it. And just as quickly it was gone again. It's thought that the waves emitted by the doppler sounds similar to a helicopter to the baby, so if it is awake it will likely try to get away from it until it gets used to it.

So almost every day since then I have tried to hear the heartbeat and one night I was able to find it right away. To my surprise our little one didn't run away! I have a feeling that baby was sleeping, because I was able to hold it long enough to call my sister Amanda and let her hear it through the speaker. It was amazing.

This morning I hadn't felt many kicks in a little while so I thought he/she might still be asleep, so I tried again. Well baby was awake, but I was still able to get some good rhythms,, albeit only for a few minutes.

Here are a couple I recorded. (Don't mind the very beginning. It's me adjusting the microphone to the phone so you could actually hear it.) You might need to turn up the volume because it's kind of low.

Audio 1

You hear the heartbeat loud and strong at the beginning, then a little lighter as I am chasing baby around with the sensor.

Audio 2

You hear the baby's heartbeat pretty consistently until about halfway through until what I think is my heartbeat gets picked up too.

Sneak Peek!

This morning we had another doctor's appointment with my regular OB. Normally they'd do our gender determination, but since we scheduled it with the Perinatologist, we were just going in for a check up. I had mentioned to Justin that maybe if the OB had time this morning I might be able to convince him to do a quick ultrasound to check for gender.

Our appointment was for 8:15 and after sitting in the room for 25 minutes popped her head in to say that the doctor should be there in a few minutes, he was running late. Once he finally showed up at 5 minutes til 9, we got started. I was kind of disappointed because I knew if he was already running late, there's no way he would do something extra for us, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyways.

He asked if anything exciting was going on and I said, "Actually no. It's particularly NOT exciting because the Peri wouldn't move up my ultrasound and I am very impatient." He just nodded his head and asked a few more questions and listened to the heart beat, which was 150! The he was getting all his stuff together and said if we wanted to wait a couple minutes he would move me to an ultrasound room and give us a sneak peek to find out the gender!

I was so excited! Justin was already going to be late, so we figured what's a couple more minutes! We moved into the other room and the doctor came back after about 10 minutes. He put the wand on my belly and voila! There was the baby! We have a little acrobat!

At very first glance he said he thought he saw a "penile structure", but after some adjustment of the want to get a better picture, he said the baby had it's foot tucked right under it's butt and what he thought was a penis could have been a toe. With some poking and prodding he never saw the "penile structure" again, so that would lead him to believe it was a girl!

So since our little one is as stubborn as both his/her parents, we won't know for sure until March 22nd.

In other news, everything else looked great. The doctor did say that I need to pick it up with weight gain. I gained 4lbs in the last 4 weeks, but I am still less than pre-pregnancy. He said that if I don't gain another 4lbs in the next 4 weeks he will send me to a nutritionist. Good thing it's Girl Scout cookie season. :-)

Next up... BIG ULTRASOUND on March 22!