18 weeks

Time is starting to pass pretty quickly now. I'm getting bigger, but can still wear most of my regular clothes. We have the "big" ultrasound on Monday, but we aren't finding out the gender (which i'm not completely happy about). Everyone says that the surprise at delivery is worth it, so I'm practicing patience. Cam and I have started perusing baby name books, which is much more difficult than i had imagined. We like completely different types of names - he likes common, traditional names, and i like unusual and earthy names. Makes me glad that we're starting the discussions early. i am also finding that the baby name books we have are absolutely awful, so if anyone has a suggestion for a good place to look, please let us know. Here is a picture of the belly from today (which is actually 17 weeks, 6 days, but who's counting!)

The books say that the baby is 5-6 inches long this week, and that i should be feeling it very soon. My belly has been very itchy and achy the last week or so. Nausea is mostly gone, except when I dont eat frequently enough, and overall I'm feeling pretty good.

In non-baby related news, Cam started his new job this week at the Tribune-Herald, and his first article made the cover story. Sounds like his is slipping seamlessly into the new position.

It looks like I will be enrolling in a PhD program at University of Hawaii, Manoa in January, but will start the research for the project sometime this summer. Lots of logistics still need to be hashed out, but we've got the funding, I've got an advisor and a research project in place, so the rest is just details. I'll be doing grassland fire research on Oahu (but we're not moving from the Big Island), so it'll be fantastic to get back to doing what I love.