little nothin'...

Saw this and it totally reminded me of me - I had to laugh...

Second Trimester - finally! :)

Yay!! for the start of my second trimester!!! This is the prego-update I got today. I thought it was pretty awesome...

How your baby's growing:

This week's big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him — a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb.

In other news: Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of lemon— and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces. His body's growing faster than his head, which now sits upon a more distinct neck. By the end of this week, his arms will have grown to a length that's in proportion to the rest of his body. (His legs still have some lengthening to do.) He's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over his body. Your baby's liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it's doing its job right — and his spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though you can't feel his tiny punches and kicks yet, your little pugilist's hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active.

Changes...

I was going on about my day today, and had to stop and smile at all the little baby things that are creeping into our kitchen, rooms and closets. It's amazing how much of life already revolves around this little sprout. :)

Catching up... weeks 12 & 13

13 wks


12 wks


So, above are my past two weeks, rounding out the last of my first trimester. I think I look F.A.T. in the 12 week picture, but that may be due to a few extra cookies and some tummy issues I had that week, more than anything! I am starting to notice a significant (to me) difference in my waist-size. I'm still wearing all of my clothes comfortably, but have got a little baby bump brewing. Seeing that the baby will be growing in high gear in the next weeks to come, I'm thinking we'll have a pop before too long!

Baby was treated to its first concert last night. Smashing Pumpkins were in town, and TJ and I were both super excited to see them for the first time (better late than never)! Once the show started, I did start to worry a bit. I know the baby can't really hear anything outside of the womb right now, but it was extremely loud, and of course, there was all the (various types of) smoke. I was struggling between trying to keep the belly covered (ear muffs!) and keeping my nose covered. As silly as it seems, I also don't really have the stamina that I would normally have, and after 3 hours of standing (1 before the show started and 2 of the show itself), I had to go over to the side of the amphitheater and drink some water and sit down. It might be awhile before I go to another outdoor show :)

I am feeling much better these days. I'm starting to get my appetite back, but in the same token, I also have strong cravings for and against things on a nearly daily basis, making food decisions difficult. Things could be worse, of course, so no real complaints. I've been a bit of a slacker with the gym lately and am feeling the bug to get back to it. Still figuring out my pace on a daily basis, but I'm more excited than ever about this little one.

First Picture!!

YAY! The long anticipated look at the little sprout has finally arrived! We went in for the first part of our prenatal screening this morning and got a good long look at the little one. :)

We have one more appointment in 3 weeks for the follow-up to all the tests. This visit showed no signs of Down's, or any other concerns for that matter (YAY!). In order to look for the soft markers for Down's, they had to get 3 specific pictures of the baby, and baby was most certainly not cooperating. It took a good 15 minutes to get the baby finally turn the direction we needed, and to give us a picture with it's chin up, rather than down against it's chest. The upside, was that we got to watch it kick around for about 15 minutes. We were able to watch the heart beat, see the spine, and see 2 perfect arms and 2 perfect legs with tiny little fingers and toes! We could even see it's bladder and stomach! The baby was bringing it's little hands up to it's face, and stretching out it's legs. So amazing!! We were also given a pretty solid guess on the baby's sex, but we'll wait to tell everyone till our next appointment, when we can be 100% sure. haha!

We're on cloud nine right now, to say the least :)

11 wks.

So, thanks to a busy work week and my obsession with the Olympics, I'm just now adding the 11 weeks update, and I'm about 1/2 through week 12. Week 11 was really uneventful from a physical standpoint. I'm not really dealing with any nausea anymore, relating to eating or not eating, and I've had not necessarily more energy, as much as not so much fatigue. The downside of this upside is that I forget to take care of myself the way I should. The nausea, although extremely unpleasant, reminded me to take time out and eat small snacks throughout the day. The fatigue reminded me to take it a bit easier. I'm feeling good, so I'll get really involved with what I'm doing, turn around, and realize that it's been 6 hours since I last ate, and oh - maybe that's why I'm suddenly dizzy. Or, I'll do a bit too much lifting or general hustling and bustling at work outside in the heat, and dehydrate the heck out of myself. I'm still adjusting to my new limitations to say the least.

I'm also adjusting to some of the emotional end of all of this. As we don't have any other kids, this is a pretty drastic change for me. I would say for both of us, but that wouldn't be true, yet. My life has been turned upside down since the very moment I found out I was pregnant. TJ's not really looking at any major changes till the little one gets here. It is sometimes a frustrating feeling to get the sense that I'm carrying all of the responsibility right now. That I have to change my eating habits, drinking habits, where I go, how long I stay, what activities I get to do and not do - even down to how many times I have to get up at night to go to the bathroom! I keep thinking that maybe when I look pregnant I'll also feel pregnant, and some of these other feelings will fade.

In other news, we had our monthly check-up this week, and have come to realize that those are almost boring. It's almost like a "thumbs up! you're still pregnant!" and that's it. We did get to hear the baby's heartbeat again, and that was really great. We have our first prenatal screening visit coming up this next week, which is a bit nerve racking. Basically this test is the first of two which will let us know if there looks like there could be any major problems with the little sprout. I'm just focusing on the fact that I get a sonogram out of this visit, which I'm incredibly excited about! Hopefully I'll have our baby's first picture to post in the next few days!!