Heartburn

21 weeks 0 days (LMP) 19 weeks 0 days (Gestational)

weight:
waist:

Your baby is getting larger in this first week of the second half of your pregnancy. It now weighs about 10.5 ounces (300 g), and its crown-to-rump length is about 7.2 inches (18 cm). It is about the size of a large banana.

The rapid growth rate of your baby has slowed. However, the baby continues to grow and develop. Different organ systems within the baby are maturing.

The baby begins to swallow amniotic fluid during the 21 st week. Babies have been observed via ultrasound swallowing amniotic fluid. Why does a baby in the womb swallow? Researchers believe swallowing amniotic fluid may help growth and development of the fetal digestive system. It may condition the digestive system to function after birth. Studies have determined how much fluid a fetus swallows and passes through its digestive system. Evidence indicates babies at full term may swallow large amounts of amniotic fluid, as much as 17 ounces (500 mL) in a 24-hour period. Amniotic fluid swallowed by the baby contributes a small amount to its caloric needs. Researchers believe it may contribute essential nutrients to the developing baby. After swallowing amniotic fluid, the fetus absorbs much of the water in it and passes unabsorbed matter as far as the large bowel.

Well, it was a good run I suppose. I was sort of enjoying eating what I wanted without worry of becoming a fire-breathing dragon but those days are over. The heartburn has kicked into full gear. Even water gives me heartburn. I love TUMS.

Did I mention that due to the baby's size at the ultrasound my edd is now 6/29/2006. Happily the midwives are sticking with July 6, 2006 as the edd since picking the early one could make it seem like I am late if I actually make it to the edd based on ovulation and put my chances of a homebirth at risk. Oh ... have I mentioned we are planning a homebirth? Probably not. Anyhow, more about that later.

Here is some info from my pregnancy calendar for the last week or so. Baby's blood cells take over for liver in producing blood. The gall bladder becomes functional, producing bile which is needed for digestion. Baby's milk teeth begin to form under gums. Baby's body hair, including eyebrows and lashes begin to grow. Small hairs called lanugo covers baby's body and face. Most of it falls out before birth. Right now your baby's skin is translucent. If you could see your baby, you would also be able to see his/her bones and organs, too! Baby weighs 12.70 ounces or 360 grams. Baby is 10.51 inches or 26.7 cm long. At this point baby is measured crown to heel instead of crown to rump.

Uneventful midwife appointment

20 weeks 6 days (LMP) 18 weeks 6 days (Gestational)

I had a midwife appointment today. We discussed my diet worksheet and the fact that I need to eat more veggies ... like I didn't know that already. Unfortunately my babies like Burger King and they don't sell a lot of veggies. :) We also discussed my ultrasound results and she agreed that the little dude looks absolutely perfect. I go back in about 6 weeks or so and they will give me the orange drink and directions to do my GTT at 27 weeks or so. Otherwise, blood pressure was healthy low which was great news, belly measured perfectly, and weight gain was good. I think I have gained a total of 12-14 pounds (according to their scale) since the beginning.

I am feeling really great in so many ways. I feel healthy (although big), happy, even-tempered and just all around wonderful ... rather sickening isn't it? I have been fairly active and this promises to keep up with warmer weather approaching. I am doing pre-natal yoga which is keeping me limber and feeling pretty centered and focused which I like. Joe and I are making HUGE strides towards getting a lot of stuff done which has been nagging at me. Joe is well on his way to getting the closet built in the 4th bedroom which will become the guest room and will allow Jaida to move into the nicer big girl room and free up the nursery for the dude. I decided on a theme for the nursery and have ordered his bedding ... very serene and sweet in a boyish sort of way. Jaida decided her room must be purple and have frogs in it so we are going to work with those two criteria and see what we can come up with. I went through all of the baby clothes we have and pulled out the clothes that can be used for a little boy which equalled three huge rubbermaid tubs full. We actually need to buy very little early on. We will likely pick up a few cute blue sleepers and a couple overtly boy outfits and call it done for now. We actually did a thorough inventory of all our baby gear and we actually need to buy very little. I already picked up replacement nipples for the bottles which we won't need until the baby is a month old or so. I also picked up a baby lounger pillow sort of thing which I wish we had with Jaida. I also would like to get a couple of new slings. I think these will be super useful with it being summer and Jaida being the active little girl that I need to keep up with. I will still use my Maya but I need a lighter weight version for summer. I also bought a new very utilitarian diaper bag that will be good for two kids ... not that I ever used a diaper bag with Jaida so hopefully this won't just collect dust.

Here are a couple of belly pictures taken at 20 weeks ...

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

20 Weeks 0 Days (LMP) 18 Weeks 0 Days (Gestational)

weight: 111/112 pounds
waist: 31 inches

Are what little boys are made of. AND we are going to know all about that since we are having a little boy! Fun stuff! I simply can't believe I am technically half way through the pregnancy already. Craziness!

Anyhow, sorry for the delay. I have been fighting off a bit of a virus since Sunday and not feeling very well. We had our ultrasound appointment on Monday and had the BEST ultrasound tech. She spent about an hour looking at the baby. The baby was so active and being quite the clown and she said she couldn't get enough of watching it. We had a BLAST! Jaida loved seeing the baby and was even able to make out eyes, nose, legs and arms without any help from us. The tech sent us home with a bunch (many more than we got with Jaida) excellent ultrasound pictures. The baby is absolutely adorable.

The baby is tremendously healthy. The tech said everything was text-book perfect. Brain had two hemispheres, cerebellum measured perfectly, palette and lip were in tact, heart had four beautiful chambers that were all working perfectly, two kidneys that looked perfect, skin completely enclosing the perfect little spine, super long legs ... she said this baby is going to be a runner for sure. The stomache was on the inside along with the intestines. The placenta was big and beautiful (her words) and perfectly placed and the cord had all three vessles. The baby is measuring perfectly although a bit big. She said at this point the baby should weigh 6-7 ounces but according to u/s it is weighing in at a whopping 14 ounces (nearly a pound!) and is measuring a little over a week ahead. Seems as if I am growing another moose of a baby. From the 3D ultrasound pictures of the baby the face resembles both Joe and Jaida which is so cool to already be able to see the resemblance.

We left the gender question up to Jaida since Joe and I couldn't agree. We asked her if she wanted to know who was inside and she said yes. The baby (unlike Jaida) was happy to oblige. The baby was super active and putting on quite a show ... we got some adorable pictures of the baby sucking on the umbilical cord, kicking its legs, sticking its tongue out, pulling on its lips, sucking on its fingers, and waving its little fists around above its head like it was doing some crazy sort of dance. We even witnessed the little bugger yanking on HIS PENIS!!!!!!!! The penial fascination starts pretty darn early.

So, we are having a little boy. It feels so strange to say that. When Joe and I got all excited Jaida just looked at us like we are idiots and we should have just listened to her the entire time. It is a bit freaky how she has been sure of the boyness of the baby from the get go. We are so excited. It is going to be fun to have one of each. We feel like we have the perfect family for us.

Anyhow, we are simply over the moon happy! We are very excited but in a calm very happy to know the final make-up of our family sort of way. I have to say it is perfect. Jaida will be a good girl influence on a little boy and make sure he grows up understanding women.

Here are some ultrasound pictures.

Hands near his face


Looking at mouth, upper lip and nostrils


3D u/s of face, hands and umbilical cord in right hand


Long legs in runners pose (tush at the top)


Boy bits and pieces with a hand going for them


His face tilted downwards. He is sucking on the umbilical cord.


Profile while playing with umbilical cord


Sticking his tongue out

I have nothing

19 Weeks 2 Days (LMP) 17 Weeks 2 Days (gestational)

weight: 111 pounds
waist: 30.5 inches

Crown-to-rump length of the growing fetus is 5.2 to 6 inches (13 to 15cm) by this week. Your baby weighs about 7 ounces (200 g). It's incredible to think your baby will increase its weight more than 15 times between now and delivery.

I have nothing of real substance to say that is. It has been a week. Not a bad week ... just a week of trying to get by really. We had a shipping fiasco for a work deployment ... which left me feeling ragged and extremely stressed. That is over now though ... thankfully. Jasper dog has also been under the weather and barely able to walk which has been a bit stressful as he is quite the big dog. It is his age that makes the situation stressful ... trying to figure out what to do with him is not an easy thing at all. Jaida has had several appointments that we have been running to this week. In the midst of all of this Joe has been out of town on a deployment since Monday. He is due back tomorrow which is just in the nick of time. So with all of that there has not been much time to either focus on or think about this pregnancy. This was probably good as the big 20 week ultrasound is on Monday (2/13/06). Can you imagine the sheer amount of obsessing I could have been doing had I not been so preoccupied with life?

Anyhow, everything is great. Baby is moving lots which means it is still alive. The belly is getting bigger which means not only is it still alive it is actually growing which is a good thing. My appetite has evened out a bit which is good otherwise I figured I would weigh 250 pounds by the end of this pregnancy. :) I am now fully in maternity clothes and I actually look pregnant ... in a cute small sort of way rather than just fat in a not-so-cute frumpy sort of way. Yay!

We are hoping for a healthy baby and good report at our ultrasound on Monday morning. Joe kind of wants to know the gender and I kind of don't want to know. So we are not sure what we are going to do about this. I think we might just say nothing. If the tech blurts out the gender then we will find out but if nothing is said we won't ask. That seems like it might work ... we will just leave it up to chance. Now if the tech specifically says she knows and asks if we want to know we are most definitely screwed because she is going to get two very different answers. :) You know I will be updating on Monday afternoon either way.

Joe felt the baby move

18 weeks 1 day (LMP) 16 weeks 1 day (gestational)

As I said in an earlier post I have been feeling solid movement from the outside for a couple of weeks now. However, it was always hard to predict where the next kick would be so Joe had a hard time feeling the baby. Well, last night I was sitting on the sofa and the baby was kicking and rolling down low where the uterus is more stretched out so it was really easy to feel. Joe put his hand on and within a minute or so he got two good little kicks or pokes and could feel the baby changing position as it rolled around. Pretty neat. It will be neat when Jaida can feel it clearly.

I finally filled out my eating log for the midwives. I think a good portion of their clients are vegetarians so they worry a lot about their patients getting enough protein. Not a problem for me though as I CRAVE protein these days. They like to see an average of 60-80 grams a day. I average about 100 grams a day. Now fiber .... that is a whole different story but that is what fiber pills are for. :)

Now I just need to figure out a way to get this little bugger off my bladder. It is amazing that something that only weighs 5 ounces or so can cause my bladder so much discomfort. Oh well ...

Ravenous hunger

18 Weeks 0 Days (LMP) 16 Weeks 0 Days (Gestational)

weight: 110 pounds
waist: 30 inches

The crown-to-rump length of your baby is 5 to 5.6 inches (125 to 1400 mm). Weight of the baby is about 5.25 ounces.

Your baby is continuing to grow and develop, but now the rapid growth rate slows done a little.

I am so hungry it is insane. I figured out that there was only 15 minutes out of a five hour period today at work where I wasn't eating something. I am eating constantly and in large quantities. At least I have gotten back to mostly healthy foods (minus the box of lemon cookies I consumed after lunch).

The baby is still sitting REALLY low. So low in fact that my bladder and pubic bone just ache. I just feel like the baby is going to fall right out of me. Not a good feeling at all.

Here is my 18 week belly picture. Jaida wants to show everyone the baby in her big fat belly also. And yes I know Jaida looks remarkably like a ragamuffin with the wild hair and all but keeping her hair out of her face is nearly impossible these days.

From Visembryo:

A dramatic growth period for the fetus.

HEAD

Fetus has phases of sleep and waking and may prefer a favorite sleep position. Temporary hair called lanugo appears on the head. Lanugo may fall out in the second week after birth, allowing fine scalp hair to grow. Eyebrows begin to form.

PELVIS

Ovaries of female fetuses contain primitive egg cells, all of the eggs a woman will have for her entire life. The uterus of female fetuses is also fully formed.

SKIN

Brown fat (colored by capillary growth) coats neck, chest and crotch areas around the lymphatic system. The vernix (consisting of dead skin, lanugo cells, and oil from glands) is now clearly formed and visible covering the skin.

PLACENTA

Placenta is fully formed and grows in diameter though not in thickness.