deuce: 18 weeks

18 weeks along, and it feels like it's flying by.  Maybe it's because of the bath remodels, or work being crazy, or life in general, but the weeks are speeding by me.  I am up a whole 4 pounds for the entire pregnancy.  I went to my doctor's appointment last week, and they stuck me with one of the doctors I haven't met yet.  Of course, the idea is that you meet all the doctors at some point, so that if your primary doctor can't get to the birth, then you'll at least have met the doctor that delivers for you.  Turns out, my OB/GYN practice is the on-call OB/GYN of the hospital, so I suspect that I'm getting whichever doctor happens to be on-call that day.  

Well, I meet the new male doctor.  I have to emphasize male because I've never had a male OB/GYN and I'm not starting now.  I don't take my car to a mechanic who rides a bike.  I don't get tattooed by a tattoo-less artist.  Nope.  Just my little hang-up.  Well, he didn't endear himself to me at all because he told me I have to get my gestational diabetes test early, in the 20th week.  That's a whole EIGHT WEEKS early.  See, my original doctor, a sassy lady who complimented my shoes, said I wouldn't have to take the test early because my after-delivery re-test was in normal range.  But, no - this guy blows in and tells me I have to take it early.  UGH.

My ligament pain is ridiculous.  I didn't have ligament pain with Britton until I was a good eight months along.  I remember that it didn't start until I could no longer lift my legs to put on pants - after that it all went downhill!  But now I get a horrible pain if I so much as sneeze, and sleeping soundly is a joke.  My feet get so badly swollen that I have to wear sneakers to work every day.  If I dare wear flats, I end up with feet that hurt so much I can't walk.  I think I'm getting too old for this!  

We have our anatomy ultrasound on Monday, and I'm ready for the "everything looks great" guarantee.    It's more to me that just learning the sex, but then again I can say that because we already know! I just like seeing the organs and the spine and seeing everything in its place.  

And that leads me to names....boy names are hard, people.  Hard.  You don't want anything too fancy, nothing too finicky, or a name that may end up in 10 years becoming a girl-dominated name.  We're keeping a running list on the fridge, and waiting a few more months to be sure we love the name we pick.