Week 8

I've been feeling pretty good this week.  I haven't been quite as tired in-general, but it really varies from day to day.  I haven't craved much this week, which is good, because if my chick-fil-a milkshake cravings continue, I'm going to be as big as a house!  I'm still nauseous off-and-on, but not too bad.  I feel very blessed because I read that 75% of pregnant women experience morning sickness.  While they include nausea in "morning sickness", mine has been very mild, which I'm very thankful for! 

Jason is coming to terms with the pregnancy a little more each week.  He asked if he can touch my belly to feel the baby (right now it's off limits!) which surprised me a little bit.  Of course he can feel my baby belly... when it's more than just chub :P.  We both still think it's a boy, but I'm 50/50 with using online gender predictors.  I guess we'll see in about 10 more weeks... I can't hardly wait!

My first "official" appointment is tomorrow morning at 8:50.  Jason is going with me and I'm nervous and excited.  They're supposed to do a bunch of testing and also an ultrasound, YAY!!!  That's what I'm most excited about :).  I'm just continuing to pray for a strong healthy baby that is growing like it should be.  I'm hoping to see a little heartbeat action in there too :).

This week's update is from planningfamily.com:

• Though you might not feel it, your baby, now about the size of a kidney bean (8-11 mm), is moving inside of you! Your baby’s facial features become more obvious this week, as his lips, tongue, nostrils, and buds for teeth have developed. His arms and legs are growing, elbows and knees develop, and his fingers and toes, though still webbed, become visible while any traces of his “tail” are almost entirely gone.
• This week, your baby’s bones also begin to harden through a process called ossification. Inside your baby’s brain, nerve cells are branching out creating his first neural pathways. And though it’s still too early to discern your baby’s sex, as any external genital organs have yet to develop, an ultrasound at week 8 could detect the beating of his little heart.

I will try to post again tomorrow, possibly with a picture of the ultrasound.  Please pray for a healthy baby in there! :)

Baby Baby Baby!

By now, just about everyone has heard our big news... I'm pregnant!  I'm very very excited and I created this blog so that you can follow along with me during and after the pregnancy :).  As soon as I found out I'm "with child" (or "knocked up" as Jason so lovingly puts it), I signed up for about 4 different baby website newsletters and "liked" a bunch of facebook groups that I now get emails from.  Needless to say, my inbox has been overflowing with baby information and I'm loving it :).  I doubt everyone is/will be as excited as I am to hear that the baby is the size of a blueberry and is growing hands and legs right now, but in case you are, I'll post updates here weekly, if not daily.

I am currently 7 weeks along and am experiencing many of the symptoms of the 1st trimester:  nausea, headaches, fatigue, hunger, heartburn, discomfort, and others that I won't go into ;).  It's hard to think that I have to wait another 7 months before meeting the little guy/girl, but I'm excited about the journey to get there :).  Jason is still adjusting.  I found out on our 4 year anniversary that we're expecting and when I told him that night, I think he was in shock.... for about 10 days.  But I think he's finally coming around :).  We both want a boy first, so I think it helps for him to talk about 'boy stuff'.

Anyway, on to the technical stuff.  Here's some information from an email I received yesterday (from www.babycenter.com) about baby's progress:

• The big news this week: Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs — although they look more like paddles at this point than the tiny, pudgy extremities you're daydreaming about holding and tickling. Technically, your baby is still considered an embryo and has something of a small tail, which is an extension of her tailbone. The tail will disappear within a few weeks, but that's the only thing getting smaller. Your baby has doubled in size since last week and now measures half an inch long, about the size of a blueberry.
• If you could see inside your womb, you'd spot eyelid folds partially covering her peepers, which already have some color, as well as the tip of her nose and tiny veins beneath parchment-thin skin. Both hemispheres of your baby's brain are growing, and her liver is churning out red blood cells until her bone marrow forms and takes over this role. She also has an appendix and a pancreas, which will eventually produce the hormone insulin to aid in digestion. A loop in your baby's growing intestines is bulging into her umbilical cord, which now has distinct blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients to and from her tiny body.

So there you have it... that's what MiniSnooks looks like right now :).  These emails always catch me off-guard when they use "he" or "she" to describe the baby and its growth, but once we find out what it is, I'll start editing them so that nobody gets confused ;).

Thanks for visiting the new blog and I'm so excited about sharing the next 7+ months with you! :)