18 Weeks Along

Saturday it rained like crazy. I slept in then we went to Nicholas Kafkakis’ 1st birthday party. He was so cute. We grocery shopped and thus ended our eventful day. Sunday it rained like crazy as well. My mom came over to help me clean out the basement. She will be helping me with this enormous task for the next two weeks. Although we worked for nine hours and got a lot done, we still only got through about 1/5 of the basement. Gladly I sent a Suburban full of stuff with her to be donated to Salvation Army. One of the cool things we went through were five totes of my old toys. It was fun reliving the memories. Most of it I reminisced about and then put in the pile to donate but some I set aside for my baby to have. When we were going through some of my old dolls and their clothes, we found an old onesie that was actually mine when I was a newborn. It was so tiny! I was only 5 lbs 6 oz when I was born but still it looked so little. It was a green sleeper with Pooh on it. I saved that as well. It would be cool to have my baby wear the same thing but it would have to be pretty small to fit into the onesie. All in all, we got 8 inches of rain over the weekend.
We took an hour walk most days of the week for exercise. I was pretty hard to motivate but was glad that we did it. My reflux has finally gone away. I think because my stomach is jutting out now the baby isn’t pressed against my esophagus anymore. Over the week I had an incredible craving for Indian food. I had it for lunch Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The only reason I didn’t continue was that I was working in Ann Arbor Thursday and Friday. Now I am craving it again! Ooh, and Honey Nut Cheerios.

News from the womb…
By now, all of the major elements of the lungs have formed except those involved with oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange. Thus, breathing air is not yet possible. Pads have begun to form on the baby’s fingertips and toes that will develop the characteristic swirls and creases of the fingerprints and toeprints. The external ears now stand out from the head and are in their final position. The eyes look forward rather than to the side. Most of the endocrine glands secrete hormones that now appear in the baby’s bloodstream. Myelinization has begun which is the coating of the nerves with a fatty substance called myelin to speed nerve cell transmission and to insulate the nerves so that messages are not interrupted. The baby now measures 5.5 inches in length, big enough to cradle in the palm of my hand.