18 Weeks 5 Days

This week has been a week filled with preparation for the baby and his room. On Monday, we went to a few stores in Birmingham and looked at furniture and baby bedding and then Friday I went to a local baby store and took a look at their nice furniture. I think I have made a decision on the furniture, but will get Shane to go take a look with me at the store here in town to see what he thinks. As for bedding, I am no closer on picking out a thing!! If all else fails and I can not find something we agree on, then I guess we can pick out some material and have someone make something to suit the both of us.

Our house is a 3 bedroom home, which one of course is the master bedroom, one is Connor's room and the other is the guest room. Since the guest room is at the front of the house which faces east, the sun comes beaming in during the mornings and pretty much stays hot most of the day until the sun goes down. Due to the temperature of the room, we decided it would be better for Connor's room to turn into the nursery, which of course being the great kid he is, he did not object to. So today I spent a bit of time moving all sorts of things I had stored in his closet to the guest bedroom closet (of course after I redistributed a lot of the items I had stored in the guest bedroom closet to other closets in the house). So I at least feel like I am getting somewhere with nursery preparation!

On Thursday, we received a package in the mail from Shane's parents with the following contents:

I can assure you that he will get more than his wear out of these outfits!! We love them and appreciate them so much. Thanks Ron and Derenda!!!

Baby boy Hood attended his first Alabama game yesterday! I believed he liked it and was cheering 'Roll Tide' with all the other fans, as he seemed active during different parts of the game! (Either that or he thought things were too loud and was getting frustrated! For Shane's sake, we will say that he was inside cheering!!!) This was the first of many in-utero for him, and I am sure during his life, he will be attending lots more!!

Shane, me and baby at Alabama vs. Florida International


Me at 18 weeks

How our baby is growing:

Head to rump, our baby is about 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and he weighs almost 7 ounces. He's busy flexing his arms and legs — which I am feeling and will notice more and more in the weeks ahead. His blood vessels are visible through his thin skin, and his ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from his head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around his nerves, a process that will continue for a year after he's born.