Weeks 15-18

Oops – fell a little far behind with these update posts!  Nothing much to report lately, though I did feel the first flutters around 16 weeks!  I would compare it to tiny gas bubbles or a butterfly inside my belly.  Definitely makes this whole thing seem more real.  Went for the 18w ultrasound last week and saw that the baby looked perfect.  We could have found out the sex that day, but we have decided to wait until the delivery to find out.  Apparently I have a fibroid (non-cancerous tumor for lack of a better word) behind my uterus that is growing slightly with the pregnancy (now the size of a lime), but they aren’t concerned about it (said about 25% of white women my age have them and 50% of women by age 50 have them) and so far I haven’t had any symptoms or pain associated with that.  Mom said that Patty and perhaps even Grandma Black had those removed in later years so I guess that’s an option if it ever starts to bother me.  Definitely have a bit of a bump, started to show around 18w (at least in my opinion) so I finally told HR at work about it and found out the maternity leave stuff.  I was especially moody/emotional week 18 which coincided with work stress, too – I cried at least once a day.  My armpits were REALLY itchy 15-17 weeks (weird!).  Sleeping on left side mostly – no issues.  Still trying to run/walk 3-4 days a week.  Was right around 130.5 lbs at the last weigh in on 1/30/12 so up 14 lbs since September.