17 weeks and moving day.

Today, baby is the size of an onion.



Baby's skeleton is hardening, changing from rubbery cartilage to bone and I'm trying to get as much calcium as possible. I really wish my dr. would have prescribed me a prenatal vitamin with calcium in it or just a straight up calcium supplement. That would have made my life a little less stressful...good thing I like milk.

Baby is also getting fat and it's fingers and toes now feature one-of-a-kind prints.

Today is finally here...moving day. Justin and his friend, Jason, are working on disconnecting the washer and dryer as I type this. It's gonna be a long and horrible day.

dr. appointments

Another good check up today...blood pressure = good, weight = about right, baby's heartbeat = still going strong. It's always a relief to hear the heartbeat...and this time they found it right away.

In 4 weeks I'll have lots of fun picture of baby to post here, but until then...look how cute my kitty is!!!

16 weeks (4 months!)

Wow, baby is the size of an avocado.



Baby's ear drums and ear bones are now developed and it can now pick up my voice. A few more minuscule changes: Eyebrows, lashes, and hair are starting to fill in.

Tomorrow is my 16 week appointment, my last appointment with my doctor here. Again, not sure what to expect, maybe just the usual pee in a cup, step on the scale, listen to the heartbeat stuff. I was able to find an OBGYN in Albuquerque and scheduled an appointment right around when I would have had my next one here, right around 20 weeks. That's the big one...ultrasound where we can actually check on the development of the baby and find out the gender! I can't wait. I'm super excited to find out the sex, but I mostly just want to see that it's developing normally. I'm such a worrier!

15 weeks

Baby is 15 weeks today and the size of a naval orange.



Baby is still moving around like crazy. I've had a couple moments when I thought I felt it move, but I don't know if it was the baby or gas bubbles or a muscle spasm or something.

An interesting developmental fact I read this week - baby's eye lids are still fused together, but it can now sense light. And, baby now has taste buds.

This past week, we received our first baby gifts...excited! My sweet aunt in NJ sent us a congrats card and my mom gave us a digital scrapbook kit specifically for baby. I bought my first pair of "maternity" pants (not technically, they were in the juniors section) - black stretchy pants with a really big, stretchy band! I still need to find some nice maternity jeans. I am down to 2 pairs of jeans that I can squeeze into (barley), one of which I have to tie together with a rubber band. I've gained 10 lbs already (mostly in my behind!).

So next week is my next OBGYN appointment. I need to get busy finding a new one out in ABQ. We only have 2-3 weeks until we move...yikes! So much to do still!

babymoon

Justin and I went on a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas to celebrate all the exciting stuff going on right now - 5 year anniversary, my birthday, new amazing job, and baby on the way. I figure it's the last vacation we will get to take before we have a child, so we wanted to make the most of our last chance to really indulge ourselves. We had such a great time. Here are a few photos from our journey.



Sun setting over Ft. Lauderdale as we depart.














Crazy static hair...which we were told by a very concerned fellow passenger that this means I'm about to be struck by lightning.







In the Bahamas.




The Queen's Staircase - carved out by slaves in the 18th century as an escape route for British troops (I think...not paying too much attention during the spiel). On the top of the stairs, some gentleman tried to sell us his newborn nephew...awesome.





Overall, it was a really fun and relaxing weekend. We learned how to play roulette and dominated it on my birthday! We ate way too much food. We watched some decent entertainment. We played in the kiddie pool area (way better than the adult pool, and less crowded). We played some bingo and the couple friends we made actually won the big $1200 bingo jackpot! We ate and ate and ate. We enjoyed the view of the ocean. We saw the most humongous ray ever at the Atlantis Hotel. We observed all the young families and thought about what it'll be like to have a kid. Life is changing so fast, but we are so excited about what God has in store for us and are looking forward to welcoming our little monster into the world in 6 months.

14 weeks

Baby is the size of a lemon...



Cute fact of the week - baby can now make facial expressions (squint, frown, grimace, etc.) and suck his thumb. Gross fact of the week - baby's kidneys are producing urine and baby is peeing into the amniotic fluid around him -baby is floating around in it's own pee. Gross.

Recently, the muscles around my belly button have been hurting, they feel really tight. My belly button is noticeably bigger. I can feel my stomach stretching and getting tights already and I can't even fathom how huge I will be in December if I'm already showing this much. Can my belly really stretch that far??? Am I going to have a huge flap of skin hanging down that I will have to tuck into my pants when this is all over??? I know I'm being irrational, but it's scary.