Weekly Update: 12 Weeks

How far along: 12 weeks!!!!

How Am I Feeling?: tired.

Mood: Happy with some bouts of grumpiness

Clothes: Last weekend at my brother's hockey game I had my jeans completely unbuttoned and unzipped. It was so uncomfortable. Luckily, I was wearing a long tshirt (Ben's....) and I had layers on since it was cold in the rink. Hopefully no one noticed. ;) I'm thinking I'll need to go shopping soon though.

Sleep: Not so good. I usually fall asleep on the couch and get up and move to the bed an hour or so later. Lately I've found it hard to fall asleep. I had to sleep on the couch last night because I couldn't fall asleep in bed.

Appetite: The last few days it has been very difficult to find something that I wanted to eat. Mostly, I am just forcing myself to eat something because I know I have to.

Cravings: I can't think of anything right now. Still not beef though. Ben hates that.

Gender Predictions: Oh I just don't know this week. I guess I'm still leaning towards boy. I had a dream the other night that it was a girl. I told Ben this and he replies "Well, you can have nightmares too." He REALLY wants a boy.

Best Moment This Week: My wonderful husband bought me flowers when I wasn't having a good day.

What I Miss: Not being this tired.

What I am Looking Forward To: still waiting to look pregnant. I keep trying to hide my stomach because I think I just look fat.

Milestones This Week: We are under 200 days until our due date!

How Big is Baby?: According to http://www.thebump.com/, the baby is the size of a plum.

Your Baby - 12 Weeks Pregnant

By now, nearly all of your baby's organs, structures and systems are fully formed. The heart begins pumping several quarts of blood through your baby's body every day. Your baby has also begun to develop nerves and a spinal cord, allowing him to feel some types of pain. While your baby's brain is not the same size it will be at birth, it does have the same structure. Fingers and toes have separated and hair and nails continue to grow. Your baby is approximately 2.5 - 3.5 inches and weighs about 12 - 14 grams. Also, the external genitals can now show definite signs of male and female gender. Before, Where there was only reflex movement, your baby now moves spontaneously and at random, although his movements are still too slight to be felt. With the use of a Doppler, you may be able to hear your baby's heart beat at this office visit. It will sound very fast, similar to the sound of a running horse's hooves. Once you hear this sound, you can rest assured that your risk of miscarriage is greatly reduced.

The Nursery: Part 1

We went to Ikea last weekend. Oh how I love that store. We picked a couple things up for the nursery and I decided that I wanted to make at least 4 different nursery themes. They have so much cute stuff there! I won't show you what we actually bought, but I'll show you some of the things that I would put in my 2nd or 3rd nursery if possible. Like how cute is this creature? I could build a whole room with just the things they had with him on it...

Or, what about this crib sheet set. Seriously? A little drummer bed just like its Daddy? Yep, love.

Finally, I would love love love to have these. Maybe when we get a bigger house and we have a playroom. Maybe we'll have a castle themed play room or something. Oh, one can dream....

A treasure chest? So cute!!
And look at this! It opens up into a mirror. The picture really doesn't do it justice.

So there you have it. Some of my favorite nursery themes. Since I only get one nursery in my house, maybe I can convince grandparents, aunts, and uncles that they should redo rooms in their houses for nurseries too!

Pickles and Plops

So my mother-in-law just sent me this picture from last weekend. We were eating dinner at their house on Saturday night. I eat very slowly these days. I start to fill up really fast but get hungry again in a few minutes. She put dessert on the table but I wasn't quite finished with my dinner. She had made 'plops' or 'no-bake cookies' as my family calls them. Well everyone else had finished their meals and had started eating the cookies. I was watching as the number of cookies got smaller and smaller. I was afraid if I didn't take a cookie, they would soon be gone. I grabbed a cookie before they were all eaten but I didn't have anywhere to put it on my plate. I just held the cookie in my hand while I continued to eat. When Ben looked over at me, I had a plop in one hand and a pickle in the other. He says "Are you seriously eating a pickle and a plop at the same time???"



So here it is everyone. The crazy, pregnant lady eating a pickle and a plop.

Weekly Update: 11 Weeks

How far along: 11 weeks

How Am I Feeling?: I had a migraine earlier this week which is awful since I can't take anything for it.

Mood: Extremely, incredibly happy.

Clothes: Still wearing my regular clothes. I have a couple pairs of pants that I have to rubberband closed. Some things fit better than others.

Sleep: Better this week. I get really restless around 2:00 every day and wish that I could take a nap. I still fall asleep early every night.

Appetite: I'm still hungry a lot. I am still very picky about what sounds good to eat.

Cravings: Right now, I wish I had some Panera.

Gender Predictions: I keep going back and forth. I keep thinking it's a boy which has me convinced that it must be a girl. We'll see.... (We'll find out mid-April. Of course that doesn't mean that we'll be telling anyone. :D)

Best Moment This Week: I have had a good week. Nothing stands out as the best though.

What I Miss: Right now, nothing. I'm just loving it.

What I am Looking Forward To: still waiting to look pregnant. I will be so excited when I actually pop!

Milestones This Week: none. But really, in the first trimester, every week is a milestone in itself.

How Big is Baby?: According to http://www.thebump.com/, the baby is the size of a lime. Don't you think you would be able to feel a lime rolling around inside you?

Your Baby - 11 Weeks Pregnant

Your baby's organ systems are now functioning and he has a skeleton, nerves and blood circulation. Your baby's tiny feet are fully formed and shaped and could stand on an adult's fingernail. The most critical part of baby's development is now over, and the remainder of the pregnancy is about rapid growth, organ maturation and getting ready for delivery. In fact, your baby grows so quickly now that he will start out this week being approximately 21 - 25 mm or 0.85 - 1.0 inches and by the end of the week will be 44 - 51 mm or 1.75 - 2.0 inches and weigh approximately 7 grams! Your baby's head is about 1/2 of his body length. The baby's eyelids are fused now and the irises are developing. Your baby will begin to get baby teeth, fingernails, toenails and hair follicles this week, too.

***I'll try to remember to update this with a belly pic tonight.

It's What I Crave....

I read somewhere that some people don't believe in cravings. This is just not the case for me. I have crazy cravings. They are always so specific too. I don't just want pickles. To make me really happy, they have to be Claussen dill pickle spears. I want Donatos Serious Cheese pizza and popcorn from AMC theaters. We have a jar of Kroger brand spicy mustard in the refrigerator. It just wasn't cutting it for me. I had to go out and buy me some Gulden's.

Some of my more specific cravings have included:

• Teriyaki wings from Wild Mike's
• Steak 'n Shake chili
• faux French Onion Soup (or the real stuff, but only from LaRosa's)
• Hot Ham and Cheese-- ideally, I would have LOVED Skyhaven ham, shaved, with swiss cheese, but I had to settle for some other kind of ham.
• Claussen dill pickle spears (or even the Kroger brand are okay)

Does anyone notice a trend?

Pretty much everything I crave is something salty. Something ridiculously salty. Disgusting, I know. I really wish I was one of those people that craved vegetables. That would be awesome. I just can't see myself ever saying "I could really go for some asparagus right now." That's just not me.

I've noticed that I can really only eat things that have strong flavors. A turkey sandwich doesn't appeal to me unless I eat it with a strong flavored cheese or put spicy mustard on it. Ground beef? No way. (Sorry, honey)

Ben has been really great about understanding my craving issues. We usually eat the things that I want for dinner and he doesn't complain (too much) when I don't want burritos when I haven't wanted burritos for two weeks and all he wants are burritos. Sometimes though I just can't be pleased. Want to feel sorry for my husband for having to deal with me? Read the conversation that took place a couple nights ago:

Setting the scene:

Six inches of snow are falling from the sky. Stephanie and Ben are relaxing on the couch after dinner, watching Heroes. Claire and her friend come onscreen, eating popcorn.

Me: mmmm, popcorn. That looks so good. I want some popcorn.

Ben: Do you want me to make you some? Let me see if we have any. (Gets up and walks to kitchen)

Me: We don't have any.

Ben: Okay, well do you want anything else?

Me: Um, popcorn sounds good.

Ben: We don't have any popcorn. Can I bring you something else?

Me: Nope. Just popcorn. Thanks.

Ben: Honey, we don't have any popcorn.

Me: Do you think you could drive to AMC in Newport and buy me some popcorn?

I didn't get my popcorn that night. I still haven't had my popcorn. I did get stuffed crust pizza last night though. I guess you win some, you lose some.

Weekly Update: 10 Weeks

How far along: 10 weeks

How Am I Feeling?: So far, so good. I am tired but that's really my only complaint. No morning sickness and all other symptoms are relatively mild.

Mood: Happy, tired. When I don't have to work I'm usually ecstatic. When I have to work, I get cranky. (Mainly because they frown upon nap taking at work...)


Clothes: I can still fit into most of my regular clothes. Today I had to break out my BeBand because I couldn't quite button my work pants. I am actually pretty pleased with the way it works. My pants feel snug, but not too tight and I'm not worried about them falling off.

Sleep: I am overly exhausted most of the time. I think I fell asleep around 9:15 last night and I was struggling to stay awake even that long. I wake up a few times in the middle of the night and sometimes it's hard for me to fall back to sleep. It's especially hard if someone in the room is snoring... So, always tired but difficulty actually sleeping. Awesome.

Appetite: I am hungry ALL. THE. TIME. It is seriously ridiculous. The problem is that I can't eat just anything. If something doesn't sound good, I won't eat it. This makes it very difficult. At work, I have a whole drawer full of different snacks that I could eat. Every day, I open the drawer, stare at everything inside and close it angrily because nothing sounds good. Things that I would have eaten in a heartbeat a few months ago now make me cringe.

Cravings: I will write an entire post on the extent of my cravings, but for now, I'll just tell you what I'm currently craving. Right now, I am craving pretty much anything cheesy.

Gender Predictions: Throughout my pregnancy so far, I have just had a feeling that we're having a boy. I do not know why I have this feeling, I just do. I have had two dreams so far that it's a boy. Maybe I think it's a boy because my husband is convinced that it has to be a boy.

Best Moment This Week: Getting to see the baby moving around on the ultrasound and hearing the heartbeat.

What I Miss: My appetite, my energy

What I am Looking Forward To: I can't wait until I actually look pregnant instead of just fat. I am really excited to learn the sex of the baby.

Milestones This Week: Seeing the baby and hearing the heartbeat

How Big is Baby?: According to http://www.thebump.com/, the baby is the size of a prune.

Your Baby - 10 Weeks Pregnant
This week marks the beginning of the fetal period, which lasts until birth. Your baby's body systems, such as circulatory, nervous, reproductive and digestive, are fully formed during this time. His heart is beating approximately 160-170 beats per minute. Your baby is 27 - 35 mm or 1.06 - 1.38 inches with 1/2 the length being attributed to the head. He weighs between 3 - 4 grams (or less then 1/2 ounce), or 4 paper clips. Also, your baby will become much more active then before, but unfortunately, his movements are still too small for you to notice. He will be moving his arms and legs, which can be seen on an ultrasound. Your baby's joints are fully formed, as are his tiny hands, feet, fingers and toes. At this age, he would be able to grab an object, if it were placed in his hand, as he grows more and more sensitive to touch. Your baby's eyes are open most of the time but the eyelids are beginning to fuse - they will stay that way until you reach approximately 25 to 27 weeks. The external genitalia are beginning to be able to show your baby's gender and both the external ears and upper lip are completely formed now. Your baby's biggest accomplishment this week is the disappearance of the tail! Also, your baby is breathing. This breathing activity is noticeable as he "breathes" amniotic fluid. He is beginning to urinate as well. (source)

Doctor's Appointment 1.0

My 3:45 doctor's appointment got moved up to 12:30 because of the snow. This just means I got to leave work even earlier. Ben picked me up from the bus stop and we drove to the appointment. When we got there, the waiting room was completely empty. We checked in and the receptionist told me that I was scheduled for my routine visit and an ultrasound. This was news to me because I didn't know that I would be getting an ultrasound. We got called for an ultrasound and I was really surprised because she told me they would do it externally. I thought it would still be too early for that. She rubbed the jelly on my belly and the baby popped right onto the screen! It was so cool. We could see it wriggling around and squirming, kicking its legs around. She pointed out the head, body, arms, and legs. I could have watched the screen for hours. It was incredible. Seeing the baby moving around makes it feel so much more real. The ultrasound tech was able to find the heartbeat too. We could easily see it fluttering on the screen and then she turned the speakers on and we could hear it too. She said it was beating at 170 beats per minute and she also said that that was really good. We were so excited to see the baby and hear the heatbeat. We got pictures too!

Still on cloud nine from the ultrasound, we went back to the regular doctor's office for the exam and bloodwork. Everything there was pretty routine. The Nurse Practicioner (NP) told me that everything looks good so far! We go back in four weeks for another visit.

Here are the much anticipated (at least by mommy and daddy) ultrasound photos.

In the first picture you can see the head, body, arms, and legs! The second picture is a front view. You can see the baby's face and you can see it's waving to us! That little blob by its right eye is its hand.

Okay, I know that they still have my maiden name on the pictures. We are a little mad about that. We had changed it in their system but they said they would keep both names attached just in case. If I call using either one, they should be able to find me. I guess they lied because everything was still under my maiden name and so now my first ultrasound picture has my maiden name too. Boo.

Baby Steps

I decided to start blogging for a couple different reasons. I always thought that it might be fun to blog about my pregnancy as a way to keep a record of the different things that have happened but I didn't think that people would be interested in reading most of it. A few things changed my mind and I decided that I am not going to force anyone to read this so if nothing else, it will be a blog just for me.

I thought that keeping a blog would be a good way to keep both sides of the family as well as friends updated. It is much easier for everyone to read blog posts than for me to repeat things a million times. (Don't worry, I realize that just because I have started a blog does not mean that I am free from repeating things a million times, but maybe it will cut it down to only repeating 999,999 times...)

Secondly, and most importantly, I have decided to write this blog to keep my sister, Emily updated. For those that may not know, Emily is currently in Afghanistan. She will be there until the beginning of August and will miss most of my pregnancy. I am blogging as a way to let her know what is going on without sending out daily emails.

I have some different things planned for my blogging experience. I plan to post pictures of my growing belly as well as ultrasound pictures. I plan to write about how I am feeling, my doctor visits, crazy cravings, stupid things I have done, and crazy emotional outbursts I have experienced. If you want to hear about anything else, just let me know! I hope to include pictures in most of my posts because everyone knows things are more fun to read when there are pictures too. (No picture today though, sorry!)

I thought I would fill everyone in on how I chose my blog name. I had planned to start this blog many weeks ago but I couldn't think of a name for it. I asked my family for some help and didn't get too many suggestions. Some of the suggestions included: 'Melissa's Sister's Blog' (yeah... nice try, pook.), 'The Dueb Tube' (which I thought was totally cute and a major front-runner for awhile. Thanks, Dad for the serious suggestions.) I also thought that 'The Duebbers' Goober' was cute. I wanted something semi-baby related but I also wanted to feel like I could continue writing after the baby is born. I thought that 'Baby Steps' was cute because it's baby related but I feel that it could also deal with the different steps that we will take as parents and that most things in life become a series of baby steps and this blog will be about all those steps that we come across.

Also, I thought this name was perfect because "Step" is one of my nicknames. It's not a commonly used nickname but it is the name that my brother-in-law uses to refer to me most. (Thanks, Tim!)

So, I hope that you enjoy reading my posts. I hope that you leave me lots of comments!!! Thank you for taking an interest. (At least in my first post. I hope I haven't lost too many after this... :))

Stay tuned.... I have my second doctor's appointment tomorrow and I promise I will let you know how it goes!

**Disclaimer: I will proofread my posts, but any missed spelling/grammar mistakes are the result of pregnancy brain and I cannot be held accountable for them. So leave me alone, Bill!