Week 17! Almost Halfway There!!!

Well, it's official, there is no more hiding the fact that I am pregnant! I finally outgrew all of my pre-pregnancy jeans! Yep, I had to buy my first maternity outfit last week, and I must say, that it's not as bad as I thought it would be! In fact, I believe I look pretty darn cute! Maybe I should be pregnant more often! Just Kidding! We're definitely going to wait at least a year or two before we even think about having another baby after this one! I can't believe how fast time flies! It seems like just yesterday I was going crazy waiting for Rob to get home from Rwanda so I could tell him the wonderful news! Man, that two weeks of waiting for him to come home was probably the most difficult two weeks of my life because as much as I wanted to tell my mom, I wanted to tell Rob first! Now I feel like the whole world knows! Everywhere I go, there's always someone looking at my belly. It doesn't really bother me, until one of them tries to give me advice. It drives me nuts when I'm walking through the bx, minding my own business, and some nosey lady comes up to me and starts talking to me about breast pumps! Seriously, I've been wanting to have a baby for almost two years already, I'm pretty sure I know almost everything there is to know about pregnancy and then some! During my long long wait of praying for a child of my own, I spent a lot of time on the internet doing lots of reading for many hours while Rob was at work! All of my pregnant friends come to me with questions all of the time. If I don't know the answer, I certainly know where to find it. Okay so I guess this is turning into a little more of a rant than an update, sorry about that!

The baby and I are doing great! I'm beginning to feel a lot more movements lately. Yesterday when Rob and I were watching tv, it felt like the baby was dancing! It went on for about 10 minutes which is the most I've felt the baby move so far. I'm really looking forward to feeling those first kicks, and I'm getting really anxious for when those kicks are strong enough for Rob to feel! I think he's getting a little anxious to feel them too. The baby is about five inches long this week and more than three and a half ounces. Body fat (baby's, that is) is beginning to form and will continue to accumulate through the end of the pregnancy. By the time our baby is born, body fat will make up about two-thirds of his or her weight and will make all those chubby parts especially yummy. The baby can also hear now, and loud noises such as Zeus barking may actually startle the baby and also get him or her used to such noises; for instance, fetuses who regularly hear a dog barking will become babies who sleep right through Fido's outbursts. Our baby's eyes (which have fortunately finished their migration to the front of his or her head) are making small side-to-side movements and can even perceive some light, though the eyelids are still sealed. And since practice makes perfect, our baby is sharpening his or her sucking and swallowing skills in preparation for that first (and second…and third) feeding. In fact, most of the survival reflexes that our baby will have at birth are being perfected in utero right now. Within the next week or so, the pads on baby's fingertips and toes will become adorned with completely individual swirls and creases (aka fingerprints).

Well, I guess this is getting a bit long so I'll let you all get back to your day! If you want to recieve notifications any time our blog is updated just click on subscribe at the very bottom of the page (under the very first blog) and type in your e-mail address. I will still try to send an e-mail out to everyone!

Here are some new pictures of me in my new maternity clothes and a picture of the comforter from the bedding set we bought. Enjoy, and don't forget to leave a comment! We love and miss you all very much!

This week's appointment

So, we didn't have another ultrasound this week after all. We just set up the appointment for our 20 week ultrasound on Feb 20th. We did get to hear the heartbeat yesterday so it wasn't a completely boring appointment! The baby's heartrate was a strong 150 bpm! Here's this week's belly pic, there's not much of a difference from the 12 week pic.

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Week 15

We're in week 15 now! Woohoo! This week we have another appointment, on wednesday. The dr. said we'll most likely get another ultrasound and we should be able to hear the heartbeat. I'm so excited to see our little bean again! At our last appointment (9weeks) our little bean measured only about 4.5 cm long (crown to rump) this week s/he should be right around 4.5 inches!! That is quite a growth spurt!

This week our little bean is practicing breathing, sucking and swallowing so that when he's ready to make his big debut he has all the skills needed to survive! He's also continuing the aerobics this week, kicking, curling those little toes, and moving his arms and legs. Though most of what I've read says that I won't be able to feel those first kicks for a few more weeks yet, I'm already beginning to feel tiny movements that are becoming a bit more noticeable and frequent than they were last week. It feels like little butterflies fluttering around in my tummy. The baby's ears are also finally positioned properly on the sides of the head (they used to be in the neck) and the eyes are moving from the side of the head to the front of the face, where they'll soon meet our loving gaze.

So far we haven't really bought anything for the baby. I just bought the bedding set last week because they finally got more winnie the pooh stuff in at the bx. We have to go pay for a table we ordered before christmas on friday and Rob is going to have his friend help load it into the truck and bring it home. Finally, we'll have a real table with chairs to eat at! Next month we're planning to buy the crib and changing table, which we've had picked out for over a month already. =P We are both so very excited to finally be adding a child to our family we had pretty much everything figured out even before I started the second trimester! Rob is going to the WIC (Women, Infants & Children) office on base tomorrow so we get that all set up and we'll save some money when we go grocery shopping from now on.

I had my first meeting for Cub Scouts tonight. I'm taking over for the treasurer while she's on TDY for the next few months. So between that and getting this house cleaned up and organized I'm going to be staying pretty busy! =) Before we know it, we'll have our beautiful baby here in our arms, asking ourselves where the time went.

Here is the 9 week ultrasound pic, and my most recent belly pic at 12 weeks.

I will be keeping this blog up to date as much as possible for everyone. I will try to let everyone know when I update it, but just in case I forget someone make sure you check in from time to time! Feel free to leave a comment! Love and miss you all!