14 weeks - well almost!

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.

Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches - about the size of a lemon— and 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 pugilists hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active. The amount of amniotic fluid that your baby is floating in increases dramatically this week, to about a quart.

My guess is our baby’s feet are probably bigger than ½ an inch – just considering our big feet. Sorry baby, but I think you are stuck with it!

We are officially in the second trimester – depending on what you read that started last week at 13 weeks or now at 14 weeks. Overall I’m feeling good – still not as much energy as I’d like. I had some edema when I ate popcorn and sat too long at the movies and then at dinner and in the car– so I guess that’s (salty popcorn) out for a while. The morning sickness has pretty much stopped completely except for a few little blips here or there but they don’t last long. I have little bursts of more energy but they seem to be followed by the extreme tiredness that has become par for the course for the last few weeks.

There is much discussion on the gender of the baby – most are thinking a boy but we will be happy either way. We’ve been talking a lot about baby names – and we seem to be going back to the same names so I sometimes think that we are closer to having names than we thought we were. But we reserve the right to change our mind at the last minute.

Maybe we’ll start posting the reject (or good name for a dog) names!

Here’s one: Shamus – which is the Irish version of James…I love it but I can’t do it!

I’ve been tivo'ing baby story – which causes many tears when I watch them. And has prompted many discussions of what we think we want in terms of a birth. LOL. If only we could skip that part of the deal! It's kind of scary. Oh well we have time for all of this but we are having fun imagining the future!

13 Weeks...according to Dr. Goo.gle

• The fetus has grown to about 3 inches (8cm) long.
• Weight approximately 1 ounce (25 grams).
• Bone is beginning to replace cartilage and the ribs are appearing.
• The nose and chin are well defined.
• Movements can be measured.
• The child will begin to learn to suck its thumb.
• The child can open and close its mouth.
• The external genitalia are well defined making it is possible to determine the baby's gender.

Your baby is now producing insulin the hormone that controls their blood glucose. The fetus is now 3 inches long and weighs about an ounce. The baby's unique fingerprints are already in place. The muscles lengthen and become organized. You can't feel it yet, but your baby can move in a jerky fashion, flexing the arms and kicking the legs. Your uterus has grown quite a bit. You can probably feel its upper edge above the pubic bone in the lowest part of your abdomen, about 4 inches (10cm) below your bellybutton.

At 13 weeks, your uterus fills your pelvis and starts growing upward into your abdomen. It feels like a soft, smooth ball. Soon you will start feeling the first flutters of the unborn child kicking and moving within. The first three months were period of rapid development, next three months will be period of rapid growth. Baby quadruples weight during the 4th month. Your baby is about 2.91 inches (7.4cm) and weighs around 0.81 ounce (23gm).

NT Scan

Well I am not going to post any pictures because to be honest - there were no good pictures to post. What we have is barely discernible as to what is what so not worth it.

Baby is there - bigger - moving around - has the correct amount of fluid in the back of it's neck - i.e. less chance of downs. Heartbeat was good - the crown to rump length was a little over 2 inches - which is appropriate for its age. That's it - my bladder was bursting and she couldn't get a look at the nasal bone - she thought she was close but would loose the resolution when she got closer - its not that its not there - its just that she can't get a good look - esp. when the baby kept putting its hands up by its face. I think I coughed a million times to get the baby to move.

So we got to see it a little and see it moving but overall not the groovy ultrasound experience we were hoping for.

A lot of waiting for a so- so ultrasound and a pin prick of blood - so basically I stressed about 2 1/2 hours out of work for about 1/2 an hour worth of procedures. Ugh. But all is well. Results in 10 days. Dan feels better - I want a good ultrasound!

The Almost 13 weeks Post

Tomorrow is our NT Scan and BUN test - a ultrasound to look for down syndrome markers - certain measurements would either rule it out or possibly tell us we need further testing which would be an amnio. The BUN part of the test is blood work looking for certain levels of proteins that can also tell us if we have a problem. I should say this is my understanding of what is happening (i.e. room for me being totally wrong here!)

I am looking forward to seeing the baby - getting better pictures - and hopefully measurements on the baby. We haven't done that in about a month and I'd like to know if everything is growing on track. Plus I want to see Dan see the baby - its been at least a month for him and its so different now - especially when you see it in person. And we have so far to go!

We discovered that the baby is somewhere between a large plum and some other fruit that I can not for the life of me remember. We are saying between since we are between weeks - so almost the size of the one I can't remember! D'oh. Can I have pregnancy brain already?

I've been feeling fairly crampy the last two days and much to my annoyance a little bit of nausea . Still. Well at least today - thank goodness for ginger tea. I sort of thought I was past it but I guess not. Both are a good sign that things are happening down there. And hopefully some nice growth is what is happening, right?

We will post the new pictures tomorrow afternoon/night. I was hoping to get Dan to go to a movie tomorrow night. At the very least I'll let you know what happened and upload the pictures later :) We only have so many movie nights left, right?

What's happening in Week 12

The most dramatic development this week: reflexes. Your baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, his toes will curl, his eye muscles will clench, and his mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. His intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into his abdominal cavity about now, and his kidneys will begin excreting urine into his bladder.Meanwhile, nerve cells are multiplying rapidly, and in your baby's brain, synapses are forming furiously. His face looks unquestionably human: His eyes have moved from the sides to the front of his head, and his ears are right where they should be. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over 2 inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce. (thank you Dr. Goo.gle for this info)

As for me I've had a cold with a low grade fever (off and on) for the last 4 days - and missed 4 days of work - well I missed 4 days of going in to work - I just worked for home - which mostly sucked. The first day I was afraid it was the flu and didn't want to pass it around and then the next days I felt so crappy I didn't want to go in I wanted to sleep - which I couldn't do because I had work to do. I probably could have gone in today but the doctor said wait until Monday or when fever is gone. Oh well. Hopefully I still have a job on Monday.

That's about it - only interesting thing we tried was to see if we could feel my uterus - one of the books said you should be able to at this point - about an inch below the belly button - and we could- this weird hard muscle feeling thing. And its only going to get bigger.

11 weeks 5 days

Watch for the little flicker in the middle - that's the heart beating - you can't see the baby too well on until the second segment - when she says - look at that little baby moving around - the head is to the left of the screen and the baby is bumping around feet moving towards 6 pm - arm moving at 2ish- and ends with the heartbeat.

We go for our NT scan and BUN test next week. There should be better pictures this was just to check the heartbeat - which was 147 - so no pictures to take home today. Otherwise my appointment was good. Placenta is on the anterior which means that it will take longer for me to feel the baby move - closer to 23-25 weeks vs 20 weeks.

Baby Pictures

One of the many...many tests I took...

April 6th - first picture! 6 weeks!

Baby Picture #2 - bonus heartbeat!!

Our first OB appt!! Look how big you are now - a gummy bear :)