I’m at about the end of Week 17 and I gave up on trying to mask my growing belly at work this week.  On Thursday morning, I buttoned my work pants and it was U-G-L-Y.  It was also pretty snug so I finally busted out the BeBand that Ranee told me to buy from Target a few weeks ago.  It turns out to be as awesome as she described.

I basically went to work in my regular work pants on but left the top button undone and then slipped the BeBand over it to hold up my pants.  With a t-shirt over it, it just looked like I was wearing 2 layered t-shirts and I was so much more comfortable.  On Friday, I wore it again on top of my new maternity pants that are still a little too big and I didn’t have to keep pulling my pants up all day!  Genius.

Another new thing I’ve experienced this week was Kumquat kicking and squirming inside.  Every once in a while when I’m sitting still or lounging on the couch, I get this feeling of popcorn popping in my lower abdomen.  People say that it sometimes feels like gas but it’s different…the feeling comes from more in the front and to the right.  Neato.

We also got our test results back from the Quad Screen, a blood test for women over 35 years of age, that will tell us the likelihood of having a baby with a chromosomal anomaly or neural tube defect.  Everything was a big fat NEGATIVE, which is a super relief for us.  So now we’ll have to wait and see if we have a healthy kumquat in the anatomy ultrasound scheduled for Monday, 11/28.  We’ll also get to find out if it will be a boy or a girl.