Hi Everybody!!

 
Can you see me waving at you?  This picture was taken on my phone, and I find myself looking at it everyday.  I still can't believe there is a real live baby hand (2 in fact) right inside my belly. 

Below is a profile picture of the baby.  Hopefully you can get oriented to the picture, my mom seems to have a hard time with this!  The head is on the right and the neck is in the middle for all of you Pat Harder's out there! 

These were taken at 18 weeks.  We were hoping to find out the sex on this date, but were only able to find out with 80% certainty.  Bummer!  There goes my weekend plans of baby shopping!  I will wait to celebrate the sex until I get my 100%!  Everything looked great with Baby B, and we get to go back in 2 weeks to hopefully find out for sure what it is. 

18 weeks: 

• I can now feel the baby kick!  I can't wait to get out of bed in the mornings knowing once I sit back down, I will feel the baby letting me know it's awake for the day. 
• Blake made brownies late last night (late for us being about 9:00...we have lost any coolness we once had), and I think the baby enjoyed them.  I woke up at 1:30 with several very distinct kicks that I swear you could feel from the outside.  I contemplated waking Blake up, but knew once I did, the baby would stop. 
• I have now forgotten what my pre-pregnancy belly button looked like.  I even think I like my new belly button better. 
• Oatmeal is the new "pickles" at my house.  I can't get enough of it!
• I bought my first pair of pregnancy jeans.  Those things are magical.