How we're growing - week 9

Baby:
Voila! Your amazing growing baby has now been accepted into to the fetus-club, a very exclusive and exiting new stage in their prenatal development. Basically, this means the little sweet pea has graduated from swimming embryo creature to a recognizable human being! This week in particular, the irises of their little eyes can function, but (frustratingly for them?) their eyelids remain fused shut for a while yet. The external ears are formed, and their inner ears are now filled with fluid—so your little one actually has started to develop their sense of balance. Your baby's little swimmer legs are still relatively short, although other developments are going forward at a nice pace: their kidney is actually functioning now, which means they’ve started urinating (this might seem charming now but wait till you have to start buying diapers!).

Mommy:
You’re nearing the end of the first trimester and while there are plenty of dynamic and noticeable changes going on inside of you, not many changes are noticeable to you save a mildly bulging midline-- which doesn't quite look pregnant enough to be exciting. Although your body might seem a little boring right now, you can expect the creeping up effect as you will gain roughly 1-2 lbs gain per week (some more and some less). It’s not a bad idea to chart this to make sure you’re not over or underfeeding both of you. As you’ve entered into the Fetal Period, it might be a good time to evaluate your personal health regimen—that is, if you haven’t already. Are you eating enough protein? Sleeping well, exercising right, drinking enough (non-sugary) fluids and getting your vitamin C? Having a baby is the ultimate test for your body—if you take care of your health now you’ll come out of the pregnancy on top of your health and ready to be an energetic mother, if not, well, let’s just say, you’re increasing the chances of suffering from depression, osteoporosis, diabetes, obesity, and a multitude of little nasty viruses (think colds and flues) that good health could beat before you even noticed they’d invaded.

Good thing Chris keeps track of my vitamins for me, with my pregnancy brain I'd NEVER remember. Feeling great still!

Whaaaa?????

It's official. I've got a full blown case of pregnant brain. I can not be trusted to remember the most trivial of things. I put the dog in the crate, but forget to close it. We go to Home Depot to place an order and I give them not only the wrong address but the wrong phone number as well. And for the life of me, I could NOT remember what the correct ones were! Chris had to look in his cell to give them my phone number. I come home from work and forget to close the garage. Start cleaning the bathroom, get distracted and forget I was ever doing it until Chris goes in that room and wonders why its covered in windex that has yet to be wiped up. The list goes on and on and on. It's embarassing really. And making it increasingly hard to keep it from the folks at work. But no morning sickness yet so I think they still have no clue.......

9 weeks! - 2 more weeks till we get to see the doc!

Week 8! 2 months down - 7 to go....

The Baby:
An ultrasound done at this stage should show a fluttering heartbeat. Elbows begin to form in the arms and fingers start to develop. The leg buds begin to show feet with tiny notches for the toes. The face continues to change as the ears, eyes and the tip of the nose appear. The intestines start to form in the umbilical cord. Teeth develop under the gums.

Mom:
Your uterus is the size of an orange now, and you may find your waistline expanding. If this is your first pregnancy, you're probably not showing. If it's not your first, you may have a "pooch" already. You will tend to show earlier in subsequent pregnancies since your muscles and ligaments aren't so tight.
You may be feeling like a teenager if you find yourself with pimples and other skin problems. Don't fret ~ pregnancy causes an increase in oil secretions not to mention those rampant hormones! Your break-outs will go away either after the first trimester as your hormones level off or after delivery.

Pimples.........delightful. :(

Dreams

So I've had a few strange dreams recently.

One a week or so ago went like this: We gave birth to twin boys, who came out 3 years old, fully clothed, talking.....we took them home and things got really wierd. Home was a giant house I'd never seen before and the Freiwaldt, Starowski, and Cave families all lived there with about a dozen kids from who-knows-where. That was a wierd but happy dream.

Last night I dreamt that I was working for Conway again in a different building but with all the same people and a few extra of my friends thrown in for fun I guess. It was my first day back after having the baby and I was able to bring him (in my dream it was a boy) to work with me. How great! Till I realized that I didn't even OWN a car seat and had completely forgotten to bring any supplies. No diaper bag, no clothes, no diapers, NOTHING. I had to change his diaper with copy paper and I cried the whole day because I realized that I couldn't leave to go get anything I needed cause I had no car seat and that I was officially a bad mother because there is no other way I could have been that grossly underprepared. I couldn't even work - I just cried everytime I'd look at my poor boy in his makeshift diaper. It was awful.

Lets hope for more of those fun strange dreams and no more I'm-a-bad-Mother dreams.

Fingers crossed.

He's so adorable

Chris is by far the sweetest husband a gal could ask for. We started DVR-ing & watching A Baby Story last night (more like I MADE him watch at first - he was skeptical). We watched 2 episodes back to back and at each of the births he started getting a little choked up. Afterwards we were chatting about the whole crazy process and he said everyone is going to be making fun of him when I give birth cause he's going to be bawling his eyes out. Ahhhh....what a sweetie. Then he got me a glass of milk. Guess he wants to make sure we get that far. :) 3 weeks till the ultrasound!