Monday, September 17, 2018
6 weeks
Baby's Head Takes Shape
You might be coping with full-blown pregnancy symptoms (poor girl), but there's plenty of good news too. The folds of tissue in the prominent bump on top — the head — are developing into your baby's jaw, cheeks and chin, which will eventually become one adorable face. And are those little indentations on both sides of the head the sweet dimples you always hoped your baby would inherit from your mom's side of the family? No, they're ear canals in the making. Small dots on the face will form the eyes and button nose in a few weeks. Also taking shape this week: her kidneys, liver and lungs, along with her little heart, which is now beating about 110 times a minute (and getting faster every day).
Measuring Your Embryo
During embryo and fetal development, practitioners measure babies as small as yours from precious little crown to cute little rump. That's because as your baby grows, her legs will be bent, making it hard to get an accurate read on the full length of the body. When you're six weeks pregnant, your baby's crown-to-rump measurement is anywhere from a fifth to a quarter of an inch and growing — making it the size of a nail head or a sweet pea (your little sweet pea!).
Symptoms I've experienced this week:
- morning sickness- Luckily I get sick only in the mornings. Pretty mild so far, but I typically vomit once a morning at this point.
- still fairly emotional and moody, but its improving
- pregnancy brain. I don't remember this at all this early in my other pregnancies, but I'm losing things, forgetting basically everything, kinda just a zombie :)
- exhaustion. I nap pretty much every day. I'm fortunate my work schedule is 9-3 so I've got some extra time for a cat nap or two.
Monday, September 10, 2018
The Tales of Baby P
So, by now you've all heard, or read, the BIG news. All of our family was told prior, with the girls being told first of course. Everyone is extremely excited and the support system we have is immense. We are grateful to have such awesome family and friends.
We have an ultrasound scheduled on the 27th which is the 8 week mark. I'm super excited about that. However, we just found out Louis has to go to New Jersey for a few days for work and won't be home until the afternoon of the 27th, so I'm going to try to reschedule it so he can be there. Anyways, I want to test this theory out that I was reading about. There is an Israeli doctor who came up with a theory he claims is accurate up to 97%. He states that if the placenta attaches to the LEFT side of the uterus, it's a boy, and if it attaches to the RIGHT side of the uterus, it's a girl. Obviously I wouldn't use this info to start decorating the nursery, but it would be interesting to see if it was true.
I have a sneaking suspicion it's either twins or a boy. I can't shake either feeling honestly. I've got mixed feelings on twins. Some days I think it would be awesome and then some days I'm absolutely terrified. We are at increased odds for having twins. First, being over 30 automatically increases every woman's chances. It has to do with FSH and the fact that it stimulates the ovaries to release multiple eggs to increase fertility odds, since apparently being over 30 and having children makes you an old maid biologically! :o Secondly, having twins genetically on the maternal side increases those odds even further, and you guessed it.....my dad had twin sisters, one of the babies died at birth, and my dad's sister has a set of fraternal twins. So far no twins this generation. I popped positive on my HCG test like 10 days prior to my expected period- and we were using a tracking app so those dates were not estimated. My stomach is already pretty big. Like I look almost three months pregnant at this point. I'm hoping I'm just crazy bloated or something. My appetite has not increased and I've actually only gained about a pound in the two weeks, but my pants barely fit. I already had to order belly bands.....ridiculous!
At age 35 you are automatically considered a 'high risk' pregnancy. I'm 34.5 years old and in extremely good health if I do say so myself, as is Louis, so neither of us are extremely concerned but we are thinking about going ahead and doing the chromosomal testing to test for abnormalities. It's pretty awesome and much less invasive than an amniocentesis, they are actually able to do it by doing a blood draw and using my blood. Not only can they detect any possible abnormalities, its is the only method to tell you with 100% accuracy what the gender of the baby is. This testing is typically done sometime between 6 and 12 weeks I guess, so it would be really early to know the gender but how awesome would that be?!?! Our 8 week appointment for the US is just with the tech and the nurse and such, we don't actually start meeting with my doctor until 12 weeks, so I guess I need to ask the nurse when that gets scheduled.
We have decided to get a new car. Well, we were already thinking about it, but this just solidifies it. Now we either need an SUV or a minivan. I REFUSE to drive a mini van, and needed an SUV with the third row capability. I didn't want a huge one like a Tahoe or Suburban....who can afford the gas, tires or maintenance on those bad boys ( or want to for that matter) so we've researched, looked and driven vehicles and have made a decision. We are going with a Toyota Highlander. We were slightly biased to begin with- my mamacita just got a brand spanking new one- a hybrid one with top of the line everything- it's awesome! I knew after driving it the first time it was what I wanted, but we did due diligence and researched multiple SUVs and still settled on it. We will not spring for a hybrid, or even a brand-brand new one, but we have settled on a 2018. They are putting them on sale to clear out for the 2019 models and are offering great financing deals- so there ya go, plus it's still brand new I guess, just not the newest year.
We have registered at Target as well as Amazon. If you visit both registries you will notice that they have multiple items duplicated on both lists. Some of our older family members and friends do not have amazon prime or just prefer to shop in a store. I will update those items as they are purchased on both sites so that duplicates are not being purchased.
Anyways we are super excited and can't wait to meet our sweet little one and are happy to share this journey with all of you!
We have an ultrasound scheduled on the 27th which is the 8 week mark. I'm super excited about that. However, we just found out Louis has to go to New Jersey for a few days for work and won't be home until the afternoon of the 27th, so I'm going to try to reschedule it so he can be there. Anyways, I want to test this theory out that I was reading about. There is an Israeli doctor who came up with a theory he claims is accurate up to 97%. He states that if the placenta attaches to the LEFT side of the uterus, it's a boy, and if it attaches to the RIGHT side of the uterus, it's a girl. Obviously I wouldn't use this info to start decorating the nursery, but it would be interesting to see if it was true.
I have a sneaking suspicion it's either twins or a boy. I can't shake either feeling honestly. I've got mixed feelings on twins. Some days I think it would be awesome and then some days I'm absolutely terrified. We are at increased odds for having twins. First, being over 30 automatically increases every woman's chances. It has to do with FSH and the fact that it stimulates the ovaries to release multiple eggs to increase fertility odds, since apparently being over 30 and having children makes you an old maid biologically! :o Secondly, having twins genetically on the maternal side increases those odds even further, and you guessed it.....my dad had twin sisters, one of the babies died at birth, and my dad's sister has a set of fraternal twins. So far no twins this generation. I popped positive on my HCG test like 10 days prior to my expected period- and we were using a tracking app so those dates were not estimated. My stomach is already pretty big. Like I look almost three months pregnant at this point. I'm hoping I'm just crazy bloated or something. My appetite has not increased and I've actually only gained about a pound in the two weeks, but my pants barely fit. I already had to order belly bands.....ridiculous!
At age 35 you are automatically considered a 'high risk' pregnancy. I'm 34.5 years old and in extremely good health if I do say so myself, as is Louis, so neither of us are extremely concerned but we are thinking about going ahead and doing the chromosomal testing to test for abnormalities. It's pretty awesome and much less invasive than an amniocentesis, they are actually able to do it by doing a blood draw and using my blood. Not only can they detect any possible abnormalities, its is the only method to tell you with 100% accuracy what the gender of the baby is. This testing is typically done sometime between 6 and 12 weeks I guess, so it would be really early to know the gender but how awesome would that be?!?! Our 8 week appointment for the US is just with the tech and the nurse and such, we don't actually start meeting with my doctor until 12 weeks, so I guess I need to ask the nurse when that gets scheduled.
We have decided to get a new car. Well, we were already thinking about it, but this just solidifies it. Now we either need an SUV or a minivan. I REFUSE to drive a mini van, and needed an SUV with the third row capability. I didn't want a huge one like a Tahoe or Suburban....who can afford the gas, tires or maintenance on those bad boys ( or want to for that matter) so we've researched, looked and driven vehicles and have made a decision. We are going with a Toyota Highlander. We were slightly biased to begin with- my mamacita just got a brand spanking new one- a hybrid one with top of the line everything- it's awesome! I knew after driving it the first time it was what I wanted, but we did due diligence and researched multiple SUVs and still settled on it. We will not spring for a hybrid, or even a brand-brand new one, but we have settled on a 2018. They are putting them on sale to clear out for the 2019 models and are offering great financing deals- so there ya go, plus it's still brand new I guess, just not the newest year.
We have registered at Target as well as Amazon. If you visit both registries you will notice that they have multiple items duplicated on both lists. Some of our older family members and friends do not have amazon prime or just prefer to shop in a store. I will update those items as they are purchased on both sites so that duplicates are not being purchased.
Anyways we are super excited and can't wait to meet our sweet little one and are happy to share this journey with all of you!
Thursday, September 6, 2018
Baby P, week 5
Deep in your uterus your embryo is growing at a furious pace. At this point, he's about the size of a sesame seed, or peppercorn and looks more like a tiny tadpole than a human. He's now made up of three layers – the ectoderm, the mesoderm, and the endoderm – which will later form all of his organs and tissues.
The neural tube – from which your baby's brain, spinal cord, nerves, and backbone will sprout – is starting to develop in the top layer, called the ectoderm. This layer will also give rise to his skin, hair, nails, mammary and sweat glands, and tooth enamel.
His heart and circulatory system begin to form in the middle layer, or mesoderm. (This week, in fact, his tiny heart begins to divide into chambers and beat and pump blood.) The mesoderm will also form your baby's muscles, cartilage, bone, and subcutaneous (under the skin) tissue.
The third layer, or endoderm, will house his lungs, intestines, and early urinary system, as well as his thyroid, liver, and pancreas. In the meantime, the primitive placenta and umbilical cord, which deliver nourishment and oxygen to your baby, are already on the job.
Every Thursday is the beginning of a new week- at this point at least. We have an ultrasound scheduled for September 27th to get count of babies, size and dates. We will have a more solid due date at that point, although, we're pretty sure this due date is correct within a day or so, but weirder things have happened!
So welcome to five weeks! So far here are the symptoms:
- tender breasts
- exhaustion
- waves of nausea, but no vomiting
- quite moody- this is in part to quitting my celexa cold turkey. Not smart I know, but I refuse to take pretty much anything medication wise when I'm pregnant.
- pants already getting tight. (OMG!!!)
Sunday, September 2, 2018
Baby P, week 4
*Your itty bitty embryo has two layers of cells called the epiblast and the hypoblast. Soon they’ll develop into all of your baby’s body parts and systems.
*Guess what? If you're having twins, you may already be able to see them on an ultrasound this week.
*Before the placenta forms, you develop a yolk sac. This sac produces blood and helps to nourish your young embryo.
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