22 week update!

Here's my 22 Week Update! Brought to you slightly later in the day than usual because I've been hella busy getting ready to go on vacation tomorrow and doing errands! now i'm "recovering" because apparently normal errands are exhausting at this point so i figured i'd update you all on the progress! Hooray1

ANYWAY here we go! 22 Weeks! Party it up!



This week the baby is the size of....





...a papaya! (don't worry, i had no idea wtf that was either when i first saw it). Meanwhile, my source for weekly baby-to-produce-comparisons has flaked out on me and is from now on doing a MONTHLY comparison. NO BUENO PRODUCE WEBSITE. So i've diligently found another source for this crucial element to our weekly updates. According to the new site, this week the baby is the size of a...


spaghetti squash! Weird but i'll take it.

So from now on we'll be using that site until my months change...which is another confusing game all on it's own (if pregnancy lasts for 40 weeks but is 9 months long, how many months pregnant am I at 22 weeks? i don't freakin' know. I found a chart:


which tells me that i'm now in my six month which i guess means i'm officially 5 months pregnant and working on my 6th month. So we'll just say i'm 5 months. Works for me.

ANYWAY.

What's the baby doing?

The baby's hands are growing and the nerve endings in his fingertips are working so now he can touch things and feel things! He's testing this new development by touching his face, grabbing his umbilical cord and other cool stuff! (hitting mommy in the stomach :) hehe)

here's the creepy cartoon monkey baby photo for this week:



oh oh and THIS is cool: the baby's hair is WHITE. No matter what color hair he'll have, all babies have white hair at this point because they are lacking pigment! WOW! His irises are also lacking in pigment too but his eyelids are still shut in there so we don't know what that looks like (which is kinda good cause that sorta freaks me out...does he have white eyes? whoa!).

the baby can now have visible reactions to things that are happening...so for example, since he has tastebuds AND facial muscles now, he can make facial expressions at the things i eat! so if he doesn't like broccoli he can grimace when i eat it lol isn't that cute??

oh and he weighs almost a pound now! That's amazing!


(check out the WHITE eyebrows!)

The baby's brain has started to rapidly grow now. It will continue to grow at this rapid pace until he is FIVE YEARS OLD! He's a genius already!

his organs are also doing cool thing and creating blood cells (fetal bloodcells have a shorter lifespan than adult bloodcells so he's making a lot in there) and his pancreas is creating lots of important hormones. He's getting stuff done!

In the next few weeks he's going to grow a few more inches and gain some more weight!

as for me, my uterus is now supposed to be 2 centimeters above my belly button. I should look and feel pregnant (duh). It should still be pretty easy for me to bend over and sit comfortably (it is thank god) and I have a big increase in blood flow right now...specifically in the plasma (the liquid part) which makes it easier for me to get a positive test for anemia because there's more liquid yet the same amount of iron (does that make sense?). My breathing might start to bother me (GOD is that one true) because everything is getting squished (seriously guys i like cannot breathe, it is really disturbing...i just can't take deep breaths!)

so yea there we go

here's my

Weekly Survey

What symptoms are you experiencing? difficulty breathing. total exhaustion.

How are you feeling? i feel good, a little stressed when i can't breathe but otherwise good. I spend time talking to the baby each day and he hopefully likes that. He hasn't been kicking as much recently which of course makes me nervous but They say that's normal at this stage so hopefully that's true.

Anything big happening in your personal life? We are going on vacation tomorrow!! Down the shore for a week! YAY!

Any food cravings? Sweets. It's bad, i know. I've been trying not to indulge in this though and have decided to combat it by getting bags of gumballs and eating gumballs when i'm craving something sweet. gumballs are much healthier for me and baby than bags of cookies lol (and there's no aspartame in gumballs, the ONLY GUM left on earth without aspartame in it! score!) so yea that's what i've been doing lol

okay let's do some comparison photos because I am so huge compared to the beginning!


here i am at 5 weeks. sigh! lol

and here's today at 22 weeks (only 17 weeks later):


wow lol big difference


please notice my blue nailpolish for the baby!


yay Zoey got in on the photoshoot today too lol :)



so HOORAY! that was a good one, right? lol

22 weeks! cannot believe it! Now i'm DEFINITELY crossed over the halfway point (the longest he can stay in there is 42 weeks) so we're definitely at 20 weeks or less until my little man is here in my arms!

so weird and so amazing at the same time lol

20 Weeks!

So here we are! 20 Weeks! We're halfway there (livin' on a prayer!) and honestly it feels like this pregnancy is flying by...that's both wonderful and SCARY AS HELL lol

so let's see what our little boy is up to this week...



This week the baby is the size of...



holy hell he's the size of a cantaloupe!! omg that's insane lol

He's about 6 and a half inches from head to bottom and 10 and a half inches from head to toe. And he weighs about ten and a half ounces! He's getting big!



at this point he is developing his own sleep patterns and has a favorite position to sleep in in there! that;s so cute :) If i pay attention to when he's moving I can figure out if he's a morning person (like his daddy) or a night owl (like me). We'll see!

his digestive system is making meconium which is a fancy word for in-utero baby poop. Gross, i know. It is made up of swallowed amniotic fluid and skin cells and stuff like that and hopefully will stay in his body until after he is born.

His boy bits are fully formed now (as we saw) and his sex is able to be determined on an ultrasound (as we know!). We go back on Tuesday for another ultrasound where it will be reconfirmed for us that he is, in fact, a he :)


here's what a baby at 20 weeks looks like - he's big!

he is developing additional layers of skin now and has about 4 layers total. The vernix (the waxy coating on his skin to protect him from the amniotic fluid) is covering his skin still and will stay there until he is born.

From now on the big thing the baby will be working on is gaining weight. His organs are all developed and in place and everything is working. He's just gonna grow and get bigger.

Also from now on his measurements will be from head to toe instead of from head to foot because it's easier to get an accurate idea of his head to foot measurements now that he's more stretched out.

As for me, my uterus is at or just below my bellybutton (it's just below, they checked today at the doctor) and it will continue to move up and that is when my belly button will either flatten or become an outtie.

I will really start to gain weight now (i'm up 7 pounds total) and so will the baby. Things like stretchmarks will become possible as well as maybe breakouts on my skin etc. So far i've been lucky in regard to both.

So that's about it!

And since there's not going to be a ton more developmental information, i thought i would fill out a little survey each week and we'll see how that goes...here it is:

Weekly Survey

this week...
What symptoms are you experiencing? I'm exhausted and also having trouble with sleep. I wake up for at least an hour every night (last night it was three hours) and yet during the day i'm completely tired.

How are you feeling? Overall i feel great! I really don't have much to complain about at all. I had some trouble breathing earlier in the week but it seems to be getting better and I'm just feeling good and happy :)

Anything big happening in your personal life? Not really at the moment, just continuing to get unpacked and get organized. And we got our baby's crib this week because it was being discontinued! it's so awesome:


check out the stars! and it's a lifetime crib so it turns into a toddler bed and then a twin bed for when he's older :) YAY

Any food cravings? I've been craving ice cream, chocolate, pop-tarts and orange juice. I've been resisting the pop-tart craving because honesty, they are just terrible and have no nutritional value at all. I've been very in moderation with the ice cream and chocolate and have been good to go with the OJ :)

Anything else to add?
we completed our registry this week! yay! it was lots of fun :)

picture post!

I thought I'd show off cute pictures of our baby :)

So on Wednesday, as you know, we went and had our anatomy scan done. She couldn't get everything measured cause our little baby wasn't being especially cooperative and he moved away from the ultrasound device a lot. I get to go back next week sometime to complete everything :)

but we DID get a few good photos and I thought it would be cute to post them!

here he is waving at the camera! So pleasant already! and posing! lol :)

here he is again! :)

he's so cute in there :)

I am really excited to have gotten such cute photos!

And i'll post one more of me..yesterday I wore blue to celebrate my baby being a boy:

I definitely am starting to show now!

I would write more but blogger is frustrating me at the moment. I'll be back later. 

19 weeks!

so wow, i'm at 19 weeks pregnant! Only one more week until I'm officially halfway done!

and as you all know, this week we found out that we're having a little boy!!! yay!! So let's find out what he's up to this week



this week the baby is the size of....



...a Mango!! whoa!

He is about 6 inches (the size of half a sandwich from Subway lol) from head to butt and weighs about 9 ounces (i know up there it says 8.5 buuut the ultrasound lady told us that our baby weighs 9 lol). His legs add extra length to his body obv. and he could be as long as 10 inches! that's huge!

A waxy layer made of oil and dead skin cells (ewie!) is now coating his body to protect him from the amniotic fluid (being submerged in fluid for 40 weeks straight would prob be a little much so this coating helps keep him protected).



His arms and legs are in proportion to his body now and he's basically just a tiny little person in there! (well, duh, he has been the whole time but he really LOOKS like one now).

His brain is working on developing his senses at the moment and he can hear and is also developing his other senses (you know them, taste, touch, smell, sight). The brain is making special areas right now for each sense!

His kidneys are producing urine and he is starting to grow hair on his head! hooray!



the baby is gaining weight now and he is specifically putting on "brown fat" which is the kind of fat that keeps him nice and warm once he's born (and it will help to make his skin stop looking translucent in there).

His permanent teeth buds are in place now and he is fully in conscious control of his movement at this point too!

His major focus from now on is to gain weight! and apparently that's going to be my major focus also (i've gained 6 pounds so far (but look like i've gained a million LOL)). Most women have gained about 14 pounds by now buuuut I'm happy with my 6 (and seriously, it was only 3 until 2 weeks ago so i'm doing fine haha)

As for me, my uterus is moving up and is almost at my belly button now (my doctor said it was in the perfect position on Wednesday! yay!) and i could experience some darkening of my skin due to extra estrogen? that's weird. It will go away after baby is born though if that does happen.

I am at the point now where i have to sleep on my side and am not allowed to sleep on my back anymore. This is because there are major veins in your back that can have their blood supply cut off if you lay on your back with all that extra weight. It's only inconvenient when i want to read in bed at night and now i have to sit up to do it lol

so that's it! 19 weeks! one more until we're at the halfway point! I can't believe how fast it's going by!

It's a...

I can't believe I didn't post yesterday! (well, I can because I was sooo busy!)

I just wanted to come here really quick and announce that we found out the sex of our baby yesterday afternoon!

We're having a BOY!!!! YAY!

He is perfect and amazing and we are so excited!

I need to do a real update soon, i'm sorry I'm behind! I just wanted to tell everyone that it's a boy!