Blogging the Belly, Take Two

I never did this with my other two, so it's fun. I don't make any promises about a third picture, however!

This week I am officially half way through my pregnancy. I hit 18 weeks, which is half way for me, due to the necessity of delivery at 36 weeks rather than 40. I am so excited, and feel that I have finally hit the "fun time" of being pregnant. The morning sickness has abated about 99%, I rarely feel sick when I eat on time. I have a lot more energy, if I take my once a day nap. I have even started exercising with the girls here again, gently! I didn't ask permission to do this from the doctor, but the placenta separation has completely healed so I feel comfortable.
T and I went to El Paso Friday and Saturday, had a girl party with two of my friends and T's cousin. It was supposed to be our Girl Party for Father's and Son's campout, but the campout got postponed due to high winds. We still went! Had a ball!

Here are the two girls at Olive Garden. Aren't they cute??

Went outlet shopping for several hours on Saturday until I was having one contraction after another and they wouldn't stop. I went and layed on my left side and drank a lot of water, but it took about an hour into the drive home for them to finally subside. These were only Braxton Hicks contractions, but with J's pregnancy, a few of those was enough for them to put me in the hospital, so it makes me a little more cautious. I guess I'll have to limit shopping to about 2 hours at a time now...
We had an ultrasound at 16 weeks and I was hoping to find out the gender but no luck, this little one was curled up and wouldn't wake up to show off. I'm going to go out on a limb though, and put down my official guess as GIRL. There is nothing scientific or "I had a dream..." about this guess. I just have a hunch! We'll see :-) The baby was measuring right on the dates, and the spine looks completely intact, the head size is perfect, we are so happy. It is also moving a LOT and kicking very nicely every day. I have another ultrasound in June, around 20 weeks which hits on our 11th anniversary, June 12th :-) I'll update then, I hope, with some news that I can go shopping with!