I thought I was through with this?

I'm at the cusp of week 17 with Baby Reed. "You should be feeling so much better by now" say both my doctor and those informative (but sometimes annoying) emails from Babycenter.  Why, o why, am I having first trimester flashbacks? One minute I'm brushing my hair for work and the next minute I'm doubled over with nausea. My theory is that Baby Reed wants me to remember he or she is still there. How could I forget? Besides the profound abdominal growth, there are still a million other signs that the baby is there. The two most recent and remarkable signs:

1. We finally got to hear the heartbeat!! For our first ultrasound, the sound portion of the machine was broken. For our first in-office doppler, the doctor (to my absolute terror) couldn't find the heartbeat just yet and had to use ultrasound to show us that yes, you can stop turning white and hyper-ventilating, that heart is pumping away. For this past Thursday's visit, he found the heartbeat almost immediately. However, he proceeded to chase the kid back and forth from one side of my abdomen all the way to the other so we could hear it for more than a second. I'm wondering if this is indicative of our baby's personality and energy level? If the baby is moving this much it's no wonder that I can feel...

2. Baby kicks. Clear, distinguishable ones. Not "oh, is that a gas bubble or a baby" kicks. I was resting my hand outside my abdomen yesterday morning and felt a clear kick. WOW. So freaking cool. I then felt more kicks at the beginning of the Saints game, but they stopped after about four minutes. Chris is even more convinced it is a girl because only a girl would get excited for the first four minutes of a football game and then go to sleep.

Speaking of Saints game... (I'm the queen of segues today) I got to go to my first one in the Superdome, thanks to some friends of ours who are season ticket holders who generously surrendered last nights tickets into our willing hands. Even though I was a zombie in the second half, we really enjoyed ourselves!