Week 14

Today is the start of week 14 for little Baby B, who is getting bigger by the day. This week our comparison-fruit-of-choice is a lemon! Fun facts about Baby B this week: baby can now wiggle her/his toes, suck her/his thumb, smile and grimace, and even pee (not so cute, but still pretty cool in a weird sort of way).

Jeremy and I are doing well as we finish the second snow day off of work. The unexpected time off has given us both time to catch up on some reading, and as I perused me aforementioned Bonding Before Birth book I uncovered some pretty heavy information about why this week is significant.

Apparently, “A baby’s tastebuds are quite well developed by 14 weeks, and after that you can ‘train’ your baby to acquire a taste for healthy foods by eating them yourself.” Now, this normally would not be such a shock – most of your probably know I’m a pretty healthy eater. However, after my bouts with morning sickness and now the strange cravings of pregnancy, I’ve given in to some “less healthy” indulgences. After all, if a girl can’t have a beer or a cup of coffee at least she can eat Pringles or mac n’ cheese, right? Apparently not! My pregnancy-induced junk food weakness may be shaping my baby’s palate and influencing his/her later food preferences! How can I later complain that my kid won't eat his/her veggies if its my fault?!? Looks like its Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and carrot sticks from here on out. Hope Baby B isn’t grimacing in there :-) Oh well, I’m sure they will learn to love it! At least I am still craving watermelon…

Listening for Baby

Ah, another week down. This week has been a good one. I'm feeling much better (just a few sniffles left) and I picked up a copy of Bonding before Birth at Barnes and Noble and have been reading all about how we can start forming a relationship with baby right now! It is exciting to think that we can already start to "communicate" with the baby - it can tell when I'm happy, sad, angry, or stressed; it can hear the voices around me; and soon it will even be able to develop a taste for the foods I eat!

Jeremy kindly listened to me share every interesting tidbit from my new book, which talked a lot about how a baby's father can and should also start bonding with the baby in the womb. Last night, after a fabulous sushi dinner (nothing raw for me, though) he massaged my belly and talked to the baby. He also did his best to listen for movement - so cute! I've been trying my best to feel the baby move, even though it probably won't happen for a few more weeks, and Jeremy wanted to see if he could talk to the baby and hear it move. He did think he heard a swooshing sound, maybe like the baby swimming around in there, but it could have been the sushi too :-) Guess we'll have to be patient for a little while longer.

In the meantime I'm starting my reading into how to best care for and raise little Baby B. Now, I have been attentively watching "Nanny 911" and "John and Kate Plus 8" for quite some time, but I'm thinking I might need to branch out a little more in my research. The good news is, there is a lot of good stuff out there on the internet! Check out the great slideshow I've already found!

Now, I think this might cover most of the important points, but I'm building a reading list too just to be safe. If you have any key parenting advice to get Jeremy and I started, please feel free to share here!

Week 13

Well, week 13 is off to a rough start. After bragging about how good I've been feeling with no nausea and the fading tiredness of the first trimester, I've now come down with yet another cold. Ah, the wonder of a pregnant woman's depressed immune system. And I can't partake in my beloved NyQuil - it's only Tylenol for me. Thankfully my amazing and wonderful boss understands and also fears contracting my illness herself, and thus I am able to take it easy at home and hope that rest helps resolve some of my symptoms (which include a slight fever, sore throat, and stuffy head - yes, a lot of fun).

Baby is getting bigger this week, which feels like a real milestone since I'm officially leaving the first trimester behind this week. I'm told he/she is the size of a peach! This is a good thing since peaches are out of season and I won't be eating any this week. It's been 5 weeks since baby was the size of a green olive and I still feel a bit like a cannibal whenever I eat one of those!

Seeing the baby!

We had our first doctor visit this past Friday and got to see our little bean for the first time. It was just amazing - hard to believe there is really a tiny baby in there! Good news was that the baby look "perfect" and was moving around - so cute!

We went today for the first half of the screening test for down syndrome and neural tube defects. They did another ultrasound and again moved my due date (which started at July 25 and is now Aug. 2). The baby was moving a ton! When the ultrasound first started we saw the baby, not moving but rocking back and forth. The technican then showed us that the baby was laying on my artery! The blood pumping was rocking the baby while it slept. Once baby woke up though it was moving all around and was QUITE photogenic.

We still have to wait 2 more months to find out if baby is a boy or girl. Jeremy thought he saw the business end during today's ultrasound and thought it looked like a boy, but when we looked up ultrasounds online we couldn't tell either way, so that is still up in the air.

You can still vote on if you think baby B is a boy or girl (see the poll to the left). We'll keep praying that baby stays healthy!