How your baby’s growing:
Head to bottom, your baby’s 3 1/2 inches long — about the length of a lemon — and weighs about 1 1/2 ounces. Her body’s growing faster than her head, which now sits upon a more well-defined neck. By the end of this week, her arms will have lengthened and will be in proportion to the rest of her body. (Her legs still have some growing to do, though.) She’s starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair all over her body (called lanugo). Her liver starts secreting bile this week, a sign that it’s already functioning properly, and her spleen starts contributing to the production of red blood cells. She’s also producing and discharging urine into the amniotic fluid, a normal process that she’ll keep up until birth. You still can’t feel your baby’s movements, but her hands and feet (which are now half an inch long) are more flexible and active. Thanks to brain impulses, her little facial muscles are getting a workout as she squints, frowns, and grimaces. She can grasp now, too, and she may be able to suck her thumb.How your life’s changing:
As early discomforts (nausea, fatigue, breast tenderness) begin to fade, you may start to regain some energy and feel more comfortable with how your body’s changing. (Although the top of your uterus is only a bit above your pubic bone, that growth may be enough to push your tummy out a bit.) Starting to show is an exciting pregnancy milestone and it will likely give you and your partner the visible evidence of a baby that you’ve been waiting for. Take some time to plan, daydream, and enjoy this amazing time. It’s normal to worry a bit now and then, but you can also breathe a little sigh of relief knowing that with the start of this trimester your risk of miscarriage has dropped significantly. Now try to focus on taking care of yourself and your baby and having faith that you’re well equipped for what’s ahead.
From BabyCenter.com
Quick OB appointment today. Babies looked good. They were lying feet-to-feet, and Baby B was playing with his/her hands. Even with all the food issues, I’ve only lost about two pounds. The only slightly scary part is that in the past two weeks I’ve had three bouts of pain right under my breastbone that could be gallstones. I’m going in for an abdominal ultrasound on Monday to get my gallbladder checked out. It could also be an intestinal spasm.
After a rough weekend, I’ve had a pretty good week so far. Switching things up to have my bigger meals early in the day seems to be working pretty well.
Now, I have a big ultrasound with the Peri to look forward to on Nov. 7. We’ll be at 16 weeks…could be finding out genders in just two weeks!
I’m still voting for “boy/girl” so we can do that double wedding with James and Fiona. Of course, I’ve already promised Fiona to someone else, but she’s young and we can work out the double-booking issues later. If we don’t start looking now we aren’t likely to find a priest willing to co-officiate with a Wiccan priestess so we need a lot of lead time.