Li'l Red Pepper

At 18 weeks, our little Hazelnut is just over 5.5 inches long, and weighs between 6.5 and 7 ounces.

I've read that women can usually start to feel their babies between weeks 16 and 22. Well folks, I think this past week was the week for us! I still can't be totally sure (as I'm learning to decipher between baby and gas), but I'm 99.9% sure that I've been feeling the baby!! I can hardly wait 'till he starts throwing me some left hooks in there and I REALLY feel 'im!

Not surprisingly, Lowell has taken to calling me ‘fatty’. I find it rather endearing (as long as it stops the second the baby slips out of the birth canal).

Names... what a task! We need to have 50 daughters to use all the girl names we (I) like, but boy names are proving to be a tad challenging. When people would willy nilly inquire around names, I would share our small list… but no longer. On a couple occasions I was met with “But will that really go with your last name?” or “I don’t love it.” Well, yes it does, and you don’t have to…WE do. The bottom line is, people will love and accept our child with whatever name we give him or her. So, we’re no longer sharing... so don’t ask!
By the way… if there are any names that you think would particularly suit a child of ours, we’re open to suggestions! Lulie or Jowell (Joel) are not options. :)

Him or her, him or her. To find out... now THAT is the question! We still haven’t decided whether or not we’ll find out the baby’s sex. Lowell wants to, but I still don’t. It’s no secret that we WANT a boy, but ultimately we would also love a girl to itty bitty bits and pieces. Here’s why we're leaning towards a boy:
1) Our sons will NOT be affected by Lowell’s eye disease… our daughters WILL.
2) The eldest child in both of our families is a boy, and we both love the idea of a big brother in our little family.
3) There are no ‘T’ grandsons in the entire extended family, let alone in Lowell’s family. It’s time we bring some ‘T’ testosterone to the mix!

That's it for week 18!