18 weeks 5 days

As you can see below Baby Whiddon is growing well. All the measurements came out normal as well as all my previous tests. Baby's heart rate was 148 and it was moving around like crazy during the ultrasound. Baby is about 5 1/2 inches from head to butt. We held strong and did not find out the gender of baby. Although, neither of us saw anything that would have told us it was a boy. The ultrasound tech asked again if we sure we did not want to know and we said YES. She did say if we change our mind, just call and she would tell us. But if we wait too long she wouldn't tell because we would have already made it so far. So now the tough part is knowing that she is the only one who knows the baby's gender. She wrote it down somewhere in the chart, where only she knows, so no one else will let it slip. Our Dr. assured us that he doesn't know either. In the picture above you can see the white dots above Baby's belly, that's his/her fist. We were watching baby move that arm around and what looked like it could be sucking its thumb. Then all the sudden the hand opened as if saying HI! She just barely hit the freeze button before I started cracking up laughing. I'm glad we got this shot.

I've been feeling baby move around for over a week now and it just keeps getting stronger. It is such a funny and relieving feeling when the flutters begin and then a stiff poke. I'm not sure if I can feel it on the outside yet. I think its in my head. Richard is still waiting for his turn.

Richard was able to make it to this appointment to meet our Doctor and get to see baby again. He also knew if he wasn't there I might have a weak moment and want to find out the gender. Richard made it back safely from Boston and he had an amazing trip. He has a bunch of pictures to put on here, he just hasn't had time. As soon as he got back on Saturday the body aches started and he spent the beginning of this week on the couch with what we think was a touch of the flu. I was sure to stay away from him and kept the Lysol in hand. I got my flu shot yesterday and have not felt bad this week. Thank God! Richard is feeling much better, just worn down and of course the 12, sometimes 15, hour days have started back up. His last week of surgery is next week and along with that comes his post test. So no promises that you'll hear from him before then.