21 Weeks

Your baby -- currently the length of a carrot -- weighs about 3/4 of a pound. (Length: 10 1/2 inches, head to heel.)

21 Weeks- Development

Your Baby This Coming Week

Your baby measures about 7.6 inches (19cm) from crown to rump and weighs about 12.25 ounces (350g).

Eyebrows have developed.

His digestive system now functions in a rudimentary manner. Undigested amniotic fluid passes into his bowel which he will eventually excrete after birth. Your baby can suck and swallow and may even suck his thumb.

Your baby's senses are developing, especially his sense of touch. He can feel his face and stroke his arms and legs.

Your Body This Coming Week

Your blood volume keeps increasing to meet the increasing demands of your pregnancy. Most of the increased blood volume is comprised of plasma, the liquid part of your blood. You may see small dilated blood vessels on your face, and your gums may be swollen due to pregnancy hormones that increase blood flow. This may also cause hemorrhoids.

While you may still be experiencing pregnancy symptoms such as back pain, round ligament pain, itchiness and some fatigue, this is the stage of pregnancy that most women enjoy the most. You are still able to move about comfortably, yet the nausea of early pregnancy has usually passed. You may also enjoy the attention that you are getting as your belly can no longer hide. By the end of pregnancy, you'll probably wish people would stop commenting!

21 Week Journal

How far along? 21 weeks.
Total weight gain/loss: Up another 2.8, for a total of 15 pounds gained so far. Seems like a large gain for this week, but last week was a tiny loss so I guess they even out.
TP test: 10 1/4 squares. Thinking about stopping doing this "test" as it's very inaccurate and kind of a pain.
Maternity Clothes: I discovered that I have a couple of pairs of non-maternity shorts that still fit. Not sure for how much longer, but for now they are nice.
Food cravings/ aversions: Nothing noteworthy.
"Morning" Sickness: Nope. Vomit free this week!
Signs of Pregnancy: Expanding belly, plus I think I've started to feel movement!
Stretch Marks: Not yet.
Sleep: Pretty good this week.
Big things this week: Starting to feel movement. Good results back from the testing that we had done.
Gender prediction: Due to the amnio, we could know this beyond a shadow of a doubt. Part of me would like to know, but I'm also looking forward to that surprise in November.
Movement: A little. Mostly in the evening when I'm lying in bed.
Labor Pains: Nope.
Belly Button in or out? In. Barely.
Wedding rings on or off? On, except on really hot days. Then my fingers are all swollen.

8-20 week comparison

Fabulous News!

I just got a call from the genetic counselor. The FISH test came back and Baby doesn't have Downs, Trisomy 18, or Trisomy 13. Still need to wait to get the full results back to see if there is a genetic anomaly on any of the other markers.

How weird though to be excited that Baby may "just" have a hole in its heart?

20 Weeks

Your baby has grown as big as a banana. (Length: about 6 1/2 inches from head to bottom, and 10 inches from head to heel.)

20 Weeks- Development

Your Baby This Coming Week

Your baby weighs about 10.5 ounces (300g) and measures about 7.2 inches (18cm) from crown to rump. He still moves about freely in amniotic fluid.

Your baby may respond to external sounds, such as the music you are listening to or your voice.

Your baby has developed some red blood cells already. The white blood cells that your baby needs to fight infections are being manufactured.

He is developing taste buds on his tongue.

His digestive system is sufficiently advanced to absorb water and sugar from the amniotic fluid that he swallows and pass it to his large bowel.

Your baby has lanugo hair on his forehead and upper lip and his eyebrows are thickening.

Vernix (the waxy substance that covers and protects your baby's skin) accumulates on your baby's eyebrows.

Your baby's eyes are still sealed shut.

Your baby continues to grow and develop and his kicking is getting stronger now.

Your Body This Coming Week

In the next ten weeks your weight gain will increase more rapidly as your baby grows and develops layers of fat. This is when you will gain about half of your total pregnancy weight.

You need to eat about 500 more calories per day now to support you and your baby. You will probably notice an increase in appetite during this time to keep pace with your increased needs and metabolism.

Try to avoid unhealthy snacks and try to choose snacks with the most nutritional value for you and your baby. You may experience uncommon cravings. A pregnancy condition known as pica, causes some women crave eating things that are not even edible (such as soil).

Your skin may itch. This is because it has stretched to accommodate your growing abdomen.

The top of your uterus has risen further and is now parallel with your belly button, probably making your belly button flat.

Your lower legs may be swelling somewhat, though this is improved when you are able to stay off your feet for part of the day.

You may experience heartburn or indigestion. Many antacid tablets are safe to take during pregnancy, but check with your doctor or pharmacist first.

20 Week Journal

How far along? 20 weeks. Halfway there!!!
Total weight gain/loss: Down .4 pounds. Odd. Thought I ate a lot this week.
TP test: Back down to 10 squares. I keep fluctuating in the 10 square range.
Food cravings/ aversions: No.
"Morning" Sickness: No.
Signs of Pregnancy: A little bit of round ligament pain. Also bending over to tie shoes or pick something up is sometimes uncomfortable.
Stretch Marks: Not yet.
Sleep: Decent. Although when I've woken up, my belly has often been very hard and somewhat painful.
Big things this week: Well, there have been a few additional posts over the past week which will let you know what's been going on. The "biggie" is yesterday's update to go along with the new ultrasound photos.
Gender prediction: I had a dream recently about the gender. But otherwise trying not to guess one way or the other.
Movement: Can't feel it, but based on ultrasounds we know that Baby is moving all around.
Labor Pains: Too early.
Belly Button in or out? Still in.
Wedding rings on or off? On.
Weekly Wisdom: Try not to stress about the unknown. Yeah, I know. So much easier said than done.

More Ultrasound photos

For those of you keeping track, yes, I had a second ultrasound today. Why? Well at the last one they discovered that the head was measuring small. So what's the big deal? Doesn't that make delivery easier? It turns out it's an indicator of some other, potentially serious, issues. So my doctor said, it's probably nothing, but she recommended that we go for another ultrasound.

The tech asked why we were there, and we told her. She did her thing, but she also seemed to be looking at the heart a lot. She looked at other areas as well, so we didn't think about it too much. And she seemed much more personable pointing things out to us. And she even did a 3D image for us. So cool to actually see what Baby could actually look like.

Then the tech went to share her results with a doctor. The doctor came in. Why are you here? Again, we mentioned the head. She said the head really didn't look bad. It was still measuring small in one measurement, but the overall measurement was normal so she wasn't concerned. However...

The tech thought she had seen a hole in the outer wall of the heart. Really? She had told us that the heart was the size of the tip of our pinky. And you can see a hole on that? Not only were there the heart concerns, but there also was an issue with the feet. Instead of being flat or curving downward, they were curving upward. Rocker feet. And finally, Baby kept clenching his/her hands. This was an indicator of some brain issues. So all of these things combined made them a bit concerned.

They thought that all of these things could mean a genetic abnormality. In particular they are concerned about Down's Syndrome, Trisomy 18, and Trisomy 13. They encouraged an amniocentesis. Based on the results of this they will be able to determine if Baby has one of these three (results in a day or two) or if it's a different genetic anomaly (results in about 2 weeks).

So at this point, we don't know. It could be something, it could be nothing. And if there is no genetic anomaly, there's still that issue with the heart. So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the next few days.

Ultrasound photos

So last Tuesday we got a peek at the little alien growing inside of me. Here it is- both photos with its hand in front of its face. Wish we had gotten the full profile shot, but this is better than nothing.

Another comparison, and some clothes

First off, here's another comparison photo. Yeah, I know. I'm a couple of weeks late getting this posted. Here I am at 17 weeks. I had meant to take a picture every 4 weeks, but I forgot and then life got in the way, so here I am at 17 weeks.And then here is my dining room table covered in clothes that were sent up from Georgia. Wow! This kid has quite the wardrobe already. It was fun going through everything and seeing some of the clothes that we had given to the nieces/nephew being passed on to our babe. And the cute pink plaid hat! (But where's the matching jumper?)
I sorted it into a few different piles: boy on the right, 2 piles of neutral in the middle, and a pile of girl on the left. Then on the far left are pink and blue bumpers, some blankets, and some crib sheets. There's also a stack of bibs and a pile of socks and hats. Now to further sort things by size. And then find a place to put all of it.

19 Weeks

Your baby equals a large heirloom tomato in size and weighs 8 1/2 ounces. (length: 6 inches, head to bottom)

19 Weeks- Development

Your Baby This Coming Week

Your baby weighs about 9 ounces (260g) and measures about 5.6 to 6.4 inches (14 to 16cm) from crown to rump.

Her skin is thickening and developing multiple layers- the epidermis and the dermis, the deeper layer where it will form fat. Your baby is now also developing a waxy protective coating for her skin called vernix caseosa. The vernix protects your baby's skin which is continuously submersed in amniotic fluid. Vernix, which is particularly thick around the eyebrows is held in place by tiny downy hairs called lanugo.

Your baby can now grip with her fists. Toenails and scalp hair are growing.

At this point, it may be possible to determine the baby's sex by ultrasound, if the baby cooperates, but the ultrasound technician will rarely guarantee the sex based on the ultrasound results as mistakes are sometimes made at an early ultrasound.

You can hear the baby's heartbeat with a Doppler ultrasound device or a stethoscope.

Your Body This Coming Week

Congratulations! You are now halfway through your pregnancy!

You may have a strong sense of well-being. You should be able to feel your baby moving in your uterus several times in a day.

Your bellybutton may become flat or may even actually pop outwards. It will probably continue to darken also, but will return to its usual pigmentation after birth. The top of your uterus (the fundus) is just below your navel.

As your uterus expands, you can expect it to put increased pressure on your lungs, kidneys and stomach. This increased pressure can result in breathlessness when you exert yourself physically. It may also cause indigestion and the need to urinate more often. Your expanding belly may also cause stretch marks on your belly. The stretch marks will probably fade considerably after your baby's birth and even more as time passes.

You may continue to have mood swings and anxiety, but this may begin to decrease. If you have been experiencing absentmindedness, it may continue.

19 Week Journal

How far along? 19 weeks.
Total weight gain/loss: Up another 1.4, so a total of 13 pounds.
TP test: 10.5 squares
Maternity Clothes: Yes.
Food cravings/ aversions: Well, this week we've been eating a lot of leftovers, so you could say I have an aversion to lasagna and BBQ. However, this is not pregnancy related.
"Morning" Sickness: Nope.
Signs of Pregnancy: Mah belleh.
Stretch Marks: Not yet.
Sleep: Much better since we got the new mattress!
Big things this week: 5 relatives from Georgia came to visit for the week. And they brought all kinds of baby gear with them, plus boxes of clothes! Also, we had our ultrasound.
Gender prediction: Not even going to try to guess.
Movement: Not yet. Wish I could feel something soon.
Labor Pains: Too early.
Belly Button in or out? In, but getting smaller.
Wedding rings on or off? Mostly on. But last weekend we had some hot/humid days and I had to take them off.
Weekly Wisdom: Try not to worry.

18 Weeks

Your baby is as big as a bell pepper and weighs almost 7 ounces. (Length: 5 1/2 inches, head to bottom.)

18 Weeks- Development

Your Baby This Coming Week

Your baby measures about 5.2 to 6 inches (13-15cm) from crown to rump and weighs about 7 ounces (200g).

The buds for the permanent teeth are forming behind those that have already developed for the first teeth.

Your baby's nervous system and brain development continue at a spectacular pace. By this week, your baby's motor neurons, which connect muscle to the brain, have grown into place so that your baby can consciously direct her movements. Millions of neurons inside your baby's brain are growing and forming connections and the nerves in her body are being covered in a fatty substance called myelin.

Your baby's ears are now placed on the sides of her head and her limbs are now in proportion. Your baby's tiny foot is just one inch long, but is in perfect proportion to the rest of her leg.

Your baby can hear your voice and recognize it.

Your Body This Coming Week

You have probably gained between 8 and 14 pounds by now, though your own experience may be different.

You may continue to feel fatigued and dizzy at times and you may continue to have a backache and round ligament pain.

People are probably beginning to comment on your pregnancy as it becomes more obvious.

You may have felt movement, or "quickening" as it is sometimes called at this point. You have probably heard your baby's heartbeat by now with an ultrasound device and you may have even seen your baby's heart beating on an ultrasound. Feeling, hearing and seeing your baby in your body can be an important bonding time for you and your baby as you begin to feel the reality that you are carrying a new tiny person inside of you. You may already be feeling strong maternal attachment to your baby. You may enjoy talking to your baby (who can hear and recognize your voice and may even be stimulated by it) and encouraging your partner to do the same (if he is comfortable with doing so) as a way of connecting with him.

18 Weeks Journal

How far along? 18 weeks.
Total weight gain/loss: up another pound.
TP test: Oddly, I seemed to have lost half a square- back to 10.
Maternity Clothes: Yup. Tried wearing a regular cami underneath a thin t-shirt this week. Didn't go so well. there was a definite line between the bottom of the cami and the top of the pants. Oops.
Food cravings/ aversions: Nope.
"Morning" Sickness: Nope.
Signs of Pregnancy: My belleh.
Stretch Marks: Nope.
Sleep: We got a new mattress and I seem to be sleeping pretty well.
Big things this week: Baby got to go to two Red Sox games during the past week! Last Thursday I was volunteering for the Red Sox Foundation, selling raffle tickets during the game, and then as a thanks for doing that, Chris and I were able to get tickets for this past Tuesday.
Movement: Not sure. I felt something on Tuesday morning, but I'm not sure if it was the baby moving or something else.
Labor Pains: Nope.
Belly Button in or out? In.
Wedding rings on or off? On.