18 weeks, 5 days

Everything has stayed about the same since last week. We went to a work dinner last night, and they offered an unlimited salad bar. I had one plate too many, and I was incredibly uncomfortable for about two hours afterwards. But it was worth it, so I'm not mad.

I've actually been able to feel him moving around for a couple of weeks now. At first, the "butterfly" feeling people talk about felt less like a butterfly and more like a freshly-opened can of Coke--the bubbly part of it. Maybe to some people that is the same butterfly feeling, but I guess not to me. In the past several days, I've felt little pokes here and there. It's pretty exciting, and it's feels great to be able to keep track of the movement this early on. I'm sure I'll be feeling a lot more the bigger he gets!

As far as my leg cramps and joint pain, I've been having good days and bad days. There are some days when I'll wake up and be a little sore and it'll go away after a while. Then there are days when I just want to tear my legs off, just to relieve the pain. I will say the same thing I said when I was in the depths of morning sickness, though; this is all worth it to me. I know it'll get worse as far as pains and overall discomfort, and I'm ready for that. The only thing that worries me is my performance at work in the next few months, just because I've been getting tired faster and I'm not even in the home stretch at this point. I'll just take it one day at a time and hope for the best.

Here's a shot I just took before starting this post:

Please disregard the laundry hanging in the background--it's laundry day in the G. household! I do have other pictures of the "gut" as I like to call it, but they are all of my bare belly. And I can only go so far in regards to showing this lovely bod to the world :)