16 week baby update!

I forgot to post how the bean is developing! We're approaching the end of the 16th week, and here's what's shakin' in babytown:

How your baby's growing: At 4 1/2 inches long (head to bottom) and 3 1/2 ounces, your baby is about the size of an avocado. In the next three weeks, she'll go through a tremendous growth spurt, though, doubling her weight and adding inches to her length. Her lower limbs are much more developed now. Her head is more erect than it has been, and her eyes have moved toward the front of her head. Your baby's ears are close to their final position, too. Some of her more advanced body systems are working, including her circulatory system and urinary tract. Her heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day. (By the end of your pregnancy, this will increase to about 1,900 quarts.) The patterning of her scalp has begun, though her hair isn't recognizable yet. Although closed, her eyes are moving (slowly), and she's even started growing toenails.

Puke: 2 Missy: 0

Well, it finally happened -- I threw-up for the first time in my pregnancy. And then a second time too! Icky. I refilled my pre-natal vitamins and said I would take a generic and that's when the %*@# hit the fan. Wrong move -- I've taken the vitamin three times and twice it's decided to make a second appearance within 10 minutes. I'll be going back to the pharmacy quickly and getting my non-generic, thank you very much! Despite the vitamin experience I've been feeling well still. I had a glucose test and quad testing (to see if you're at higher risk for having a baby with Downs syndrome and a few other things) last week. I'll find out the results at our next appointment, January 5th.

The most recent preggers development, besides the oh-so-pleasant vomiting debacle, is that I discovered last night that I can't sleep very well on my tummy anymore. I can still kind of sleep fine with one knee out to the side propping me up a little, but when I go to switch sides all my weight goes on my tummy as I roll, which is extremely uncomfortable and has the unfortunate side effect of waking me up (grrr). Similarly, when I bent over the sink to do dishes yesterday and squished my tummy, the baby said, "Okay mom, if you want to do that, I'm cool. I'll just move over here and push on your bladder really hard and see what happens." Woah, junior - making mommy feel like she's going to pee on the rug in front of the sink is not a good thing! Lesson learned: no more tummy squishing!

We had a very good Christmas -- the bean even received a few presents! How's that -- he/she isn't even here yet and already they're raking it in! Lucky ducky. :) And to answer the number one question received over Christmas -- no, I haven't felt the baby move yet. :(

Oh the weather outside is frightful!

But inside it’s so delightful. Hmm, wait, it’s frightful inside too! With Jon gone I’ve been trying to do the Christmas decorating so he’ll come home to a winter wonderland, instead of the usual explosion-o-junk-everywhere decor that he’s used to seeing in our house. Looks more like a war zone trimmed in garland right now though.

Grandma K. and Aunt Lori came to visit us this weekend, my little peanut – what fun!! And Grandma S. came and helped put up garlands and the tree (your silly daddy says that I can’t climb on the counters to put up the garland in the kitchen!). :) It was such a big help to have people there to take my direction, or uhm I mean to help me decorate! There is a long way to go but I definitely couldn’t have done any of the garlands or the tree without all their help. You certainly wouldn’t pitching in, little bean, besides making mommy tired and occasionally irritable (I know, I know, everyone is wondering how your sweet mommy could ever be irritable, but it has been known to happen). :)

Jon comes home this weekend (!!!!!!!!) so I’ll be busy the rest of the week getting the house ready. I wouldn’t want him to walk in the house, take one look, and then want to turn around and go back to his nice clean hotel room in India, wondering what in the world I did the whole time he was gone (since it certainly wasn’t all the productive things I imagined!). I’m planning to hug him and not let him go for a couple days though, so I don’t think that he could escape even if he wanted to!

Heartbeat!

I had a doctor's appointment this morning and got to hear the heartbeat of our baby for the first time! We saw it on the ultrasound before, but didn't hear it, but this time I was able to listen to the "woosh woosh woosh woosh". The heart rate was about 135 beats per minute, which is normal (I guess it's usually between 120-160 bpm). It was very cool to hear -- I hope that we get to hear it again at the next appointment so that Jon can hear it too.

Everything else went well at the check-up. I haven't gained any weight since my last appointment, which the doctor said was good, though I feel like I'm an ever-expanding balloon. :) I have some lab tests that I'm supposed to go and have done in two weeks as well -- a screening for the baby and a glucose test for mommy.

The bean is 14 weeks this week and is the length of a lemon (hopefully with a sweeter disposition). I love how they compare the baby to food, it makes it easy to understand and pretty cute. Here's what's going on this week:

How your baby's growing: Head to bottom, your baby's 3 1/2 inches long — about the length of a lemon — and weighs about 1 1/2 ounces. Her body's growing faster than her head, which now sits upon a more well-defined neck. By the end of this week, her arms will have lengthened and will be in proportion to the rest of her body. (Her legs still have some growing to do, though.) She's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair all over her body (called lanugo). Her liver starts secreting bile this week, a sign that it's already functioning properly, and her spleen starts contributing to the production of red blood cells. She's also producing and discharging urine into the amniotic fluid, a normal process that she'll keep up until birth. You still can't feel your baby's movements, but her hands and feet (which are now half an inch long) are more flexible and active. Thanks to brain impulses, her little facial muscles are getting a workout as she squints, frowns, and grimaces. She can grasp now, too, and she may be able to suck her thumb.

If the baby's anything like mommy was when she was little he/she is already sucking their thumb and probably has a blankie to hold on to in there (Woof-woof Junior?).

Call me Mrs. Planters

My peanut has turned me into a nutcase (haha). Mommy-to-be has officially turned into an emotional wacko. One minute I'm happy, the next I'm so pissed off at something (anything really) that you better watch out, and the next minute I'm crying like a baby. I'll cry at anything. Seriously. Anything.

Case in point -- Jon is in India for two weeks (justified crying there) and I wanted to make him lasagna as his last meal here (his favorite food). There is one pasta sauce that he really likes and the store was out. No big deal, right? Right. Unless you're pregnant. And then, logically, the missing pasta sauce naturally results in a sobbing fit in the grocery aisle. Followed quickly by wanting to rip off the head of the next person who stops and asks, "Are you okay?" DOES IT LOOK LIKE I'M OKAY?! CAN'T YOU SEE MY HUSBAND'S FAVORITE PASTA SAUCE IS NOT HERE!?! Some people just don't get it. :)

My brother-in-law may also be wondering if I might be losing it. He called at 11 pm on Saturday night to tell me that Jon, who had just arrived at his hotel in India, was on the computer, trying to message me. Since he couldn't get me, he messaged Jeremy and asked him to call me. Again, that wouldn't be a problem, except for some insane reason I had just watched the last 10 minutes of the movie The Perfect Storm on tv. The 10 minutes where the crew dies, the main guy they've been focusing on drowns and you hear him profess his love to his girlfriend back home, the funeral takes place, and the girlfriend thinks she hears her dead boyfriend telling her he loves her at night. I knew all this was coming (seen the movie before) and watched anyway! I was sobbing like a wus-cake, sure that Jon was dead, when Jeremy called. The conversation went something like this, with thoughts and additional sounds in ():

Me: Hello? (blub blub, sniff)
Jer: Hi, is this Missy? (It can't really be her; she's not usually sobbing when she answers the phone)
Me: Sniff, blub yes blub (This isn't Jon. Why isn't this Jon!? He must be dead!)
Jer: Jon wants me to tell you to get on your computer (My sister-in-law is a wacko; I better get off the phone before something else weird happens)
Me: Oh-sniff-kay (He's not dead! -- cause for more blubby sounds)
Jer: Ooookay then (Is she a danger to herself? Should I have her committed right now or wait for Jon to get home? I really better get off the phone.)
Me: Sniff, thanks, sniff. Bye. (Get off the phone and get up stairs! Your bunner is on the computer!)

Anyway, I haven't cried as much in the last year as I did in the last 4 days. Some of it justified (Jon leaving, then thinking he was dead, then him not being dead) and some not (i.e. the pasta sauce, and there might have been a pickle incident at work as well, but you didn’t hear that from me). :) This emotional roller coaster is something that I'm ready to get off of right now!

13 weeks and you can pee!

The Babycenter update this week says that you're the size of a jumbo shrimp -- almost 3 inches -- and that you are starting to urinate the amniotic fluid that you've been swallowing. You better not be making a mess in there, bean!

Here's what's going on at 13 weeks, courtesy of Babycenter.com!

How your baby's growing: Your belly may soon be big enough to announce to the world that you're expecting, but your baby is still tiny. In fact, he's only about 3 inches long crown to rump — roughly the size of a jumbo shrimp — and weighs just about an ounce. Despite the small proportions, there's a fully formed baby inside your womb now. Much more proportional than it was a few weeks ago, his head is now only about a third the size of his body. If you could hold his hand, you'd notice the tiny, squiggly lines that make up his one-of-a-kind fingerprints. You'd also see his veins and vital organs beneath his tissue-thin skin. His kidneys and urinary tract are functional, and he's starting to urinate out the amniotic fluid he's been swallowing. As you start your second trimester, most of your baby's critical development will be completed, and your odds of miscarriage will drop considerably.