12 Weeks- Development

Your Baby This Coming Week

Your baby is about the size of a peach and is growing rapidly. Crown to rump, your baby measures 2.6 to 3.1 inches (6.5 to 7.8cm) and weighs 0.5 to 0.7 ounces (14 to 20g).

Your baby's legs are longer than her arms and her skin is red and transparent. Her eyelids are fused together and won't open for about four more months. Her arms are long enough to reach her mouth and she may begin to place her thumb in her mouth. Her sucking reflex, however, is not yet developed.

The tissue that will become your baby's bones is being laid out, especially around her head and her arms and legs. Some ribs may be distinguished at this time. The nose and chin are more prominent now.

Your Body This Coming Week

You are beginning your second trimester of pregnancy.

Your uterus is growing rapidly and is filling the pelvis and moving up into the abdomen. If you are still having morning sickness, it may stop around this point.

Some women will get stretch marks on the breasts, hips and buttocks that may show up this early. They will later fade but will probably not disappear altogether. Some women experience itching around this time but it is more common later in pregnancy.

You probably have noticed changes in your breasts. They are becoming larger and heavier and the areola is probably darkening. They are preparing to secrete milk for your baby!

Your placenta is now well developed and is responsible for hormone production which was previously manufactured by your ovaries. Estrogen and progesterone are the primary hormones which are now being produced. These hormones are necessary for maintaining your pregnancy and inducing the changes necessary for it to progress.

Your baby will begin to practice breathing in the next few weeks as her chest rises and falls in mock breathing motions. She will also swallow small amounts of amniotic fluid which will be passed as urine.

Your placenta is providing all of your baby's needs for nutrition, oxygen and waste disposal, though the amniotic fluid will become more important later on.

All major components of the body are formed and now must grow and mature. From now on, your baby's development will consist primarily of organ maturity and growth and body refinement.

Week 12 Journal

How far along? 12 weeks.
Total weight gain/loss: Up another 2, so 6 lbs overall. (Down 1 from my doctor visit last week, but to be consistent I should only go with my scale.)
TP test: Just over 9 squares.
Maternity Clothes: Nope. Not yet. However, many of my pants are getting tighter. And I'm getting tired of all of my clothes. This morning I had to try on 3 pairs of pants before I could find ones that fit.
Food cravings/ aversions: Not that they are real cravings, but I'm very susceptible to food "advertising". Not so much from typical ads, but if I read something on a website, message board, etc and it mentions a food, I often then want it. Like sloppy joes and hot dogs. Oh, and I guess my real "craving" is canned peaches.
"Morning" Sickness: After saying that this was better, I have had a couple of days where I've felt a bit nauseous.
Signs of Pregnancy: Tight clothes.
Stretch Marks: Nope.
Sleep: Ugh. The crappy sleep has started. Most nights I've woken up. One night I was awake for about an hour. It's a mix of having to get up to pee and waking up because I'm just not comfortable.
Big things this week: Our news is now public! See earlier post about sharing the news.
Gender prediction: WAY too early to tell. Although we did have an offer from a dowser to tell us what we're having.
Movement: Nothing yet.
Labor Pains: Nothing yet.
Belly Button in or out? Definitely in.
Wedding rings on or off? On. And a little loose.
Weekly Wisdom: Try to enjoy it. Time goes by very quickly. I was mentioning to Chris this week how quickly a month has gone by. It seems like we were just taking my 8 week belly pictures.

Sharing the News

The past few days have been filled with spreading the baby news.

• Thursday I told my bosses and a few other people at work
• Friday I told even more people at work (One had even figured it out on her own. She had commented a couple of days that I looked tired and then saw Saltines on my desk. After that she kept quiet.)
• Saturday I told my skating class. Many of them commented that I didn't need to stop skating, and although I probably could keep going, it's not as fun anymore. A couple of reasons for this, but primarily I'm not really trying anything new since I don't want to push myself and risk falling. So next Saturday will be my last class for a while.
• Saturday I announced at a family reunion. My great-grandmother was one of 16 children and this was a gathering for descendants of the 16 members of the Bennett family. I'm not really sure why, but I was kind of nervous announcing there. Lots of family who I didn't know, but the ones I did know were excited and happy. Also, it turns out there is a dowser in the family. (There was another dowser a couple of generations back.) So he came over at one point and offered to do his thing and tell me if I was having a boy or a girl. I asked him what his success rate was, and he said about 80%. In the end we declined since we had previously decided to wait to find out. I had kind of thought about asking him to write it down and seal it in an envelope and then after the baby was born we could see if he was correct. He said that the only time he couldn't tell anything one way or the other, it turned out the woman, whose due date was 3 weeks away, was actually in labor at the time he was dowsing her. And he also was brought in one time to dowse an elephant for the Smithsonian Zoo. They were trying to mate the elephant, and since they have such a long gestation period they didn't know if it had worked or not. So he went in, did his thing, and said she wasn't pregnant. It wasn't until a few months later that the vet was able to make the same determination.
• Sunday I posted the news on Facebook with a link to this blog.
• Today I posted my ultrasound to Facebook.

I think I may have missed some people, but I'd say at this point the news is pretty much out there. Fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong!

11 Weeks

Your baby is now about as big as a fig. (Length: just over 1 1/2 inches, head
to bottom.)

11 Weeks- Development

Your Baby This Coming Week

The end of the twelfth week of pregnancy marks the end of the first trimester. Your baby is now almost 2.5 inches long (6.1cm) when measured from crown to rump, and weighs between 0.3 and 0.5 ounces (9 to 13g).

Your baby's fingers and toes have separated and are getting longer. Your baby can open and close its mouth and drinks amniotic fluid which it passes out as urine. Its head is becoming more rounded, though it is still large in proportion to its body. It has eyelids.

You can now hear your baby's heartbeat with a Doppler Ultrasound device!

Your baby continues to grow rapidly and has doubled in size in the last three weeks alone.

The face is beginning to look more human, and all body structures are present with a few refinements still in progress. Fingernails and toenails begin to develop this week.

Your baby's muscles are sufficiently developed to allow for involuntary movements at this time. The messages which control your baby's movements are sent from the spine, rather than the brain, which is not yet sufficiently developed.


Your Body This Coming Week

Your uterus has now enlarged so that it protrudes above your pelvic bone. You may have begun to "show". It may be time to buy some maternity clothes!

Your doctor or midwife can feel the baby by external examination around this time.

Your heart is working harder to pump the increased volume of blood around your body and as a result your body temperature has risen. Your heart rate may have increased by a few beats per minute to cope with the increased blood volume circulating throughout your body.

Morning sickness may decrease and you may not need to urinate as much as in early pregnancy. You may become constipated, however, as bowel movements slow down in pregnancy.

You may notice a dark line, called the linea nigra, running along your abdomen from your navel to your genital area. The linea nigra shows where your abdominal muscles are stretching to allow for your uterus to grow. The linea nigra may remain for a little while after the birth of your baby, but over time it will fade.

Week 11 Journal

How far along? 11 weeks.
Total weight gain/loss: According to the dr's scale yesterday, up 7 lbs overall.
TP test: About 9.5 squares.
Maternity Clothes: Nope. Not yet. I did buy a belly band though, which is a tube-like piece of stretchy fabric designed to be worn over your unbuttoned pants and your belly. It holds the pants up and looks like you are wearing layered shirts.
Food cravings/ aversions: Just kind of tired of all food options. Nothing is appealing to me any more. Not that I'm avoiding food, but no cravings one way or the other.
"Morning" Sickness: Still generally feeling good. There was one day where I was feeling a little icky, but not bad. Toothbrushing is still a little iffy. Oh, and one night the smell of some dirty dishes was making me heave a bit.
Signs of Pregnancy: Tight clothes.
Stretch Marks: Nope.
Sleep: Could be better, but overall not all that bad.
Big things this week: Doctor's appointment where I got to hear the heartbeat again. Also I told my friend Mel. Haven't talked to her in a while so it was nice to reconnect.
Gender prediction: WAY too early to tell.
Movement: Nothing yet.
Labor Pains: Nothing yet.
Belly Button in or out? Definitely in.
Wedding rings on or off? On. And a little loose.
Weekly Wisdom: Don't be so afraid to share the news with people. It's ok to tell them.

Successful Dr Appointment

I had my first appointment today with my OB. The previous appointment had just been with the nurse. Observations:

• This appointment was perhaps a little longer since I hadn't had a pap done in about 2 years. So it was more or less just like an annual appointment. I can't imagine how quick some of these future appointments are going to be.
• I got to hear the heartbeat. She said that normally it can't be heard (via Doppler) until 12 weeks, but since I'm on the thin side she'd give it a try. It took her a while (she kept hearing my heart beat) but eventually she found it. Baby's heart is beating at about 150 beats per minute. This is good.
• Getting to hear the heartbeat was nice, because even though I know I'm pregnant sometimes I just feel normal so you start to wonder, am I still pregnant?
• I was able to book the ultrasound! (June 8th)
  
• I also was able to book appointments through the end of September. She was originally just going to book my next appointment and I asked for 1st appointment of the day so that I would miss less work. They only had afternoon left for that one and the next one, but she went ahead and got me early times for all the rest.
• June 8th will be an appointment filled day because I have the ultrasound and a normal appointment. Of course they are at two different locations. But better to get them done in one day rather than taking up time on two days.
• I got cleared to take Claritin for allergies. Benadryl is also safe.
• I forgot to ask if I can take Sudafed. When I fly the pressure really hurts and my ears feel stopped up for at least half a day after landing. Sudafed alleviates this. In May I'll be flying for work so it would be great if I could take it. I'll make sure to ask at my next appointment, which is the week before my trip.
• My weight on the office scale was 4 pounds higher than my weight at home this morning. The difference makes sense (clothing, food/liquids in my stomach) but I wish my "official" weight wasn't that high already.