Baby Kicks!

Okay, so feeling the baby kick is unbelievable. I first felt the baby at 15 weeks when I was laying in bed and  it did a 180 flip in my tummy. It was the weirdest feeling! Definitely felt like someone turned my stomach inside out. Around 16 weeks I started feeling light flutters that I knew were tiny kicks but were hard to even notice because I didn't pay that much attention.
The first time I REALLY noticed was when I was seeing Twilight: New Moon! I have a few theories on this: 
1) I felt the baby kicking stronger because I was sitting still and had a little caffeine
2) The baby loves vampire movies and was really excited
3) The baby hates vampire movies and was desperate to get out of there


At 17 weeks the kicks were really noticeable for me and I was feeling them all the time! It was so amazing to be able to track my baby's movements based on where I was feeling kicks, and I can tell you, that kid is MOVING.
Which brings us to week 18. At 18 weeks 1 day I was out to dinner with my family when I felt some pretty strong kicks under my ribs. It was so strong I put my hand on my stomach and was surprised to notice that I felt it from the OUTSIDE! I thought I was going crazy because the doctor told me you don't usually feel kicks from the outside until 20-24 weeks. I immediately grabbed my sister-in-law-to-be's hand and put it on my stomach and she immediately felt it too. Whew! Not crazy. I grabbed Garland's hand at the same time and that sweet daddy's face lit up like the Fourth! He was so surprised/shocked/giddy that he just sat there and smiled, it was top 5 cutest things I've ever seen :)


Since then I have noticed 2 things: 1) I feel the kicks the strongest when they are up by my ribs, and 2) my abs are SORE! I feel like I did P90X and I need to stretch my belly all the time. So weird! I have also reached the conclusion that while it has been so cool to feel the baby kick so strong so early that this could come back to bite me in my late pregnancy. I have a feeling I'll have some sore ribs from some major kicks!