Week 18 Recap - Christmas, Baby Kicks and More

Thursday was last day of week 18.  (That means I'm coming up on 5 months.  20 weeks is the halfway point!)  Week 18 was a VERY exciting week!  We started it off by having lunch with my sister, aunt and cousin at one of my favorite Houston restaurants, Tiny Boxwoods. My aunt and cousin got me my first few maternity shirts!  This was followed by some Christmas shopping at the Galleria, and then a nice dinner in Kingwood with Ryan, my sister, BIL (bro-in-law), mom and grandma. THEN Ryan and I went to broomball with the high school youth group!  It was so great seeing so many people that we care about - all in one day!

The steak and avocado salad at Tiny Boxwood's is AMAZING.  I literally have dreams about this salad because it's so good.    I also usually ask for chicken instead of steak.  SO GOOD.  

On Christmas eve, I put on the dress that I was planning on wearing to church.  It's empire waist and had fit me a few weeks ago.  Since it's empire waist, I figured I would probably be able to wear it for a while.  It's so loose just under the bust line!  I was wrong.  I had NOTHING to wear.  My black pants?  Nope. Other dresses?  Nope.  It was an extremely... emotional.... afternoon.  I finally got to the point where I just decided I wasn't going to go.  Eventually, I calmed down enough to put my jeans back on (for some reason all of my jeans still fit - YAY!  I think being super low rise AND semi-stretchy makes that possible).  Even though, I felt totally UN-CUTE, I said SCREW it, don't care what anyone else thinks, I'm wearing jeans and heels.  So I did.  And no one cared.  (The day after Christmas, we made our first trip to buy some maternity clothes, which I will go into more later!)

Later that evening, while at Ryan's parents house for a family party I started feeling the baby move.  It was a lot stronger this time (I had eaten a LOT of Christmas cookies - oops!) so I had Ryan put his hand on my stomach to see if he could feel anything.  It's so sporadic though, he wasn't able to feel her.  I have been feeling small movements since week 14, and it's been so hard not being able to share that experience with Ryan over the last 4-5 weeks.  All I have been wanting for WEEKS is for him to finally be able to feel her too!  Christmas day came and went though.  There was so much going on, I was never in a good spot or position for Ryan to feel her.  December 26th, (the last day of my 18th week) I was laying on the couch relaxing after the madness and BAM.  She jabbed me.  BAM.  Another jab!  Luckily Ryan was sitting right next to me so I told him to put his hand on my stomach and try to feel her again.  BAM.  Just one last kick.  And he felt it :)  "Was that it??" "Yep!"  I think I was just as happy in that moment as I was when we found out we were having a girl.  I can't WAIT for more of these moments! Week 18 was an awesome week.