16 Weeks and Counting

Michael and I at 14 1/2 weeks

(This was on our river trip to Wimberley - you can tell, it got pretty crazy!)

Me at 16 Weeks
This week our baby is ... YUM!... an avocado! Convenient for baby, more taste buds are developing this week as well. ha I can't help but think of Will Ferrell doing Harry Caray asking "If you were a hot dog, would you eat yourself?" when I type this! (Skip ahead to 2:10 or so if you don't watch the whole SNL skit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hObBw7ZAWDo.)

Tiny bones are also forming in his/her ears which allow him/her to hear our voices and eyebrows, eyelashes and a hair pattern is forming. Eyes and ears are closer to their 'final resting places' this week and he or she is growing toenails that promise to be the tiniest toenails I've ever clipped! The baby's heart is pumping close to 25 quarts of blood a day, which amazes me along with all of these other developments. Aaand most exciting, this is the last week (hopefully) that I will have to write "he/she" or "him/her" because we have our ultrasound to determine the sex a week from today, Tuesday! We are anxious to know, but also know that some planning craziness will ensue once we know if it's a boy or a girl.

In other news...

Smaller than our avocado-baby, would be a raspberry... but unfortunately the raspberry that Michael got this past week is a lot larger than our baby! Wednesday morning I got a call at 6:30am from Michael who was out on a bike ride, asking me to come pick him up a good 15 miles or so from our house. A close encounter with a group of runners caused the spill and Michael slid off the right side of his bike seat with the right side of his behind taking the impact. Thankfully we had no broken bones, his gloves saved his hands and he was otherwise alright - but the bloody scrape across his backside is quite a bit larger than these pictures let on (about the surface area of a CD) and has slowly been healing up this week day by day.

Michael after he got home from the accident on Wednesday last week.

The raspberry, isolated for modesty. :)

(Michael noted this looks like a planet.... it DOES!)

Anyway, until next week where we announce baby Michael or baby Natasha... have a great one!

15 Weeks and Counting

Three and a half months pregnant is a strange time. I definitely feel as though I look a little more pregnant these days though half the people in my life say "You look the same!" and others say "oh my goodness look at that baby pooch!" My belly is swelling, but not clearly full of a baby just yet so it's a weird in-between time where friends and family know I'm pregnant and the world thinks I'm bloated. haha Both of which are true!

14 Weeks (since I missed it last week)

15 Weeks

This week our baby continues to work its way through the produce section and is the size of an orange (about 4 inches from the top of his/her head to his/her bottom). Following previous weeks where the baby developed fingernails and teeth under the gums, baby is taking more steps this week toward being an attractive person with proportional arms and legs. The eyelids are still sealed shut, but the baby can sense light and tastebuds are forming. He or she also now has functioning joints and is wiggling around in there like we saw on the sonogram last week... but is still too small for me to feel.

In other news, my braces are on and no longer sore. This past weekend we went on a family vacation with my family to Wimberley and had a great relaxing time. Aaannd last but not least, the last day of week 14, yesterday, we came home to a broken AC. We're staying with our good friends G & Lu at least one night to see if we can get it repaired ASAP, but for now the same sweet friends that saved us during the water shut-off crisis have pulled through again. Huck is in doggie heaven playing with their Boston Terrier Charlie Daniels... and it sure beats our 93 degree house!

Huck with our 'ghetto A/C' - a bowl of ice and a fan - before we left for G & Lu's.

13 Week Sonogram

Can I say enough how much we love our Dr.? Though we were only scheduled to hear the heartbeat, when he saw we had our camera he whisked us into a different office to do a sonogram as well.

Michael and I couldn't believe how much bigger the baby seemed this visit with longer legs and arms and much more movement. The link to the video is below and to give you some perspective, the head is to the left of the sonogram image and the feet are there on the right. The baby is within that black oval space... everything else is just other junk in my abdomen.

http://s997.photobucket.com/albums/af92/MandNAnderson/?action=view&current=13WeeksSonogram.mp4
Here's the breakdown of the video for those of you that don't look at sonograms very regularly:
- At about :26 seconds Dr. Thurston pushes on my belly to try and stir the baby up for some movement (that's what all the bouncing is) and again at :42 seconds
- At :49 seconds you can see an arm straighten, then a back arch
- At :58 seconds you can see the baby put his/her legs out straight up and stretch out
- At about 1:10 you can see the baby 'curl' his/her arm (which Dr. Thurston says indicates a boy because he's doing 'curls' haha) and move his/her hand toward his/her face

Then the battery runs out, ... but I have to say, it's pretty amazing to think that all of that is happening right now even as I type this blog. I think it only gets more miraculous from here.

14 Weeks and Counting

14 weeks is officially here. I don't have a 14 week picture of my belly yet, but since today is officially the day I change to 14 weeks I wanted to get my post up... otherwise who knows when that would happen!

Last week baby was a peach and this week it is a lemon. Hmmm I'm pretty sure our baby isn't shrinking! haha The sites I follow all give different sizes but we know from our doctor's visit last week that the baby is about 3 1/2 inches. This week baby is wiggling his or her toes, moving his or her arms and legs, producing urine, growing thin downy hair all over its body for warmth and able to suck his or her thumb. Dr. Thurston enjoyed joking that because we're Aggies it's more likely that the baby is just putting its thumb to its forehead instead of its mouth, but we know that's not true!

Michael and I went to our 13 week appointment last week and heard the heartbeat (see video below) but because we had our 'camera that makes videos' as you can hear the Dr. ask about on the heartbeat video, he ALSO let us do an ultrasound (pictures of that are below as well). The heartbeat video is short but the heartbeat was strong and a little over 160. It was fine with us that he didn't spend too much time listening to the little guys or girls heart since he or she was much more fun to watch than hear!

I have a fun video of the sonogram where you can see the baby kick and squirm, but it's too large to post like the other video so I'm going to have to figure something else out. Our appointment with the Perinatalogist is August 31st and at that appointment we'll check out all the baby's organs to make sure they're growing and in place as they should be as well as find out if we're having a little boy or girl. That will be here before we know it!

13 Weeks and Counting

Well, here we are at 13 weeks. I'm "three months pregnant" (that's still strange to say) and supposed to be entering the honeymoon phase of my pregnancy, which is the second trimester. Sometimes my belly looks more poochy than others, but for a reference point, we're posting a week 13 picture so we can watch this thing grow over the next couple of weeks!I think I had it confused last week, because it's THIS week that baby is supposed to be the size of a peach. This week baby's got teeth forming under the gums, intestines moving into the body and vocal chords forming! This is also the week where Michael and I will hear the heartbeat at our doctor's appointment, I will get braces (unrelated to baby), and who knows what else.

Last week I was feeling even better than the weeks before with nausea dissipating more and more, though some things are still very "pregnant" of me. The only mint that sounds good to me right now is Cinnamon - so the regular toothpaste, gum, and mints that used to be my favorite are on the outs and I've got Big Red gum, Cinnamon toothpaste, etc. Fruits and other cold, tart things (pickles!) still hit the spot as they have since week 6, but this last week more greasy things started sounding good like Sonic corn dogs, nachos (oh the nachos!), egg rolls and yes mom, Jack in the Box tacos (that mom craved during her pregnancy with me). Salads still sound good as they have since week 6 so that's good... I'm just trying to strike a balance!

My clothes are for the most part still comfortable to wear, but this last week I purchased two belly bands, a pair of maternity shorts and a dress in anticipation of the 'teen weeks' where I'm sure to get uncomfortable in my normal clothes.

Michael continues to be a great supporter and just laughs at all these quirks that come with 'growing things'. He does this on top of his time-consuming triathlon training which paid off in a great race this last Sunday in Shreeveport, the Rivercities Triathlon. I actually did not travel with him to this race as he went with one of our neighbors, so I don't have pictures to show but perhaps now that I've plugged it, Michael will post something about it! haha we'll see....

I hope all of your weeks are off to a great start. 5 more weeks (give or take) till a cooperative baby will tell if it's a boy or girl :)