9 weeks

How your baby's growing: Your new resident is nearly an inch long — about the size of a grape — and weighs just a fraction of an ounce. She's starting to look more and more human. Her essential body parts are accounted for, though they'll go through plenty of fine-tuning in the coming months. Other changes abound: Your baby's heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form — as do her tiny teeth. The embryonic "tail" is completely gone. Your baby's organs, muscles, and nerves are kicking into gear. The external sex organs are there but won't be distinguishable as male or female for another few weeks. Her eyes are fully formed, but her eyelids are fused shut and won't open until 27 weeks. She has tiny earlobes, and her mouth, nose, and nostrils are more distinct. The placenta is developed enough now to take over most of the critical job of producing hormones. Now that your baby's basic physiology is in place, she's poised for rapid weight gain.

8 weeks

How your baby's growing: New this week: Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your baby's hands and feet, his eyelids practically cover his eyes, breathing tubes extend from his throat to the branches of his developing lungs, and his "tail" is just about gone. In his brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. You may be daydreaming about your baby as one sex or the other, but the external genitals still haven't developed enough to reveal whether you're having a boy or a girl. Either way, your baby — about the size of a kidney bean — is constantly moving and shifting, though you still can't feel it.

pay it forward

Tomorrow I am off to do some holiday traveling. Pray for me that I make it to my destination! I really don't want to be stranded in some airport all alone overnight. Jared left on Monday so this is a solo trip cross-country for me. I'll probably not be around here as much for the next couple weeks, but I'm leaving you something special before I go. Read on...

I told Jen I would participate in this blogging game so that I could receive a handmade gift from her. In return I will send a handmade gift to the first three people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF (Pay It Forward) exchange. Just as Jen said, you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. (So, you must have a blog to participate.) Keep in mind that if you want to get something from me, you have to give. Sound good? So, who's it gonna be? Leave a comment and post this on your blog to get something special from me! I don't know what it will be yet, but it's gonna be good!

early christmas

I fear that I may not have any presents to open on the actual day of Christmas because I've been getting all of them early. You may recall this one I got several weeks ago:
And there was this one:
And then yesterday I had my own little Christmas because I had 4, yes 4!, UPS packages waiting for me after work! Two of them were my clothes that I have already mentioned. The dresses are so cute and definitely wearable immediately. The green one was a bit darker than the picture though, but still pretty. The jean skirt I'm unsure of. Perhaps I should have waited to purchase anything that clearly maternity. But it was only $19.99! I ordered my normal size, but it seems way too big in the hips and thighs. Will my hips get bigger too eventually? I'm not sure if I should return it for the smaller size. The picture shows the skirt being quite form fitting and it is not that way on me. Thoughts anyone?

The other two packages were things Jared had ordered. One was this pregnancy book that my doctor recommended. (I kinda knew he had ordered this because he asked me a question about it.)
The other package was a complete surprise. It was very large but also very light. When I opened it, it was gift wrapped. Any guesses? It was a new DVD player! Ours died a few months ago, and we have just been watching movies on our kick-a computer monitor. But having the new DVD player will make it much easier for me to do my Ballet Workout. Thanks, honey!

What are you getting for Christmas? Or if you are like me, what have you already received?

christmas purchases

Christmas to me means new clothes. It means a lot of other thing too, but as for presents, it just wouldn't be Christmas without a few new articles of clothing. Well this year, since I'm preggo, I figured I'd take advantage of some sales and buy a few maternity items, even though it will be months until I'm showing. Here is what I picked out and what "Jared" bought for me:

I love this dress! And the great thing about it is I think I may even be able to wear it now. I love that flowy, empire waste clothes are in fashion right now.


This skirt is just super practical and will be great for Spring and Summer.


This dress I also may be able to wear sooner rather than later. It's great cause it will work for all seasons. And I love the fun pattern instead of just plain black.

I may be a little ahead of the game here, but I've got to take advantage of the holidays, right? And since we're on the topic, what is your advice for maternity clothes, oh wise mothers of the blogosphere? I know I'll eventually need to get some jeans and pants for work, but I'm going to put that off as long as possible. What other items do you think are absolutely necessary?

7 weeks

My little one is starting to look a little less like an alien! This is what I got from BabyCenter today:
How your baby's growing: The big news this week: Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs — although they look more like paddles at this point than the tiny, pudgy extremities you're daydreaming about holding and tickling. Technically, your baby is still considered an embryo and has something of a small tail, which is an extension of her tailbone. The tail will disappear within a few weeks, but that's the only thing getting smaller. Your baby has doubled in size since last week and now measures half an inch long, about the size of a blueberry.

If you could see inside your womb, you'd spot eyelid folds partially covering her peepers, which already have some color, as well as the tip of her nose and tiny veins beneath parchment-thin skin. Both hemispheres of your baby's brain are growing, and her liver is churning out red blood cells until her bone marrow forms and takes over this role. She also has an appendix and a pancreas, which will eventually produce the hormone insulin to aid in digestion. A loop in your baby's growing intestines is bulging into her umbilical cord, which now has distinct blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients to and from her tiny body.

idea for parents

I have started a private blog that will be all about my baby. I thought of this awhile ago as an alternative to making a scrapbook for my kids. I gave up on scrapbooking long ago. I am going to do a wedding photo album because I got 4x6 prints as part of the package with the photographer. But printing photos and pasting them is just not for me. I'm a fan of all things digital!

Instead of a baby book, I've made a baby blog, and once a year I will have it printed into a book with the help of blurb. I know I am not the first to think of this, but I'd bet there are still some of you non-scrapbookers out there that might think this is a brilliant idea! Also, I decided I might as well get started now to document my pregnancy. This gives me an outlet where I can write about pregnancy stuff without boring all of you. And I like that it will all be in one nice place for my child to read someday. Sometimes I may copy and paste and put the same post on each blog. We'll see how it goes.

So for all you parents and parents-to-be go start a blog for your little ones! It's so much easier than scrapbooking!

Do you have any other great memory-keeping ideas? I'd love to hear them.

paralyzed and pregnant

I've already become slightly obsessed with all things pregnancy related. However, I am going to make an effort to keep my blog somewhat varied over the next 8 months, so that it doesn't turn into "musings of a pregnancy". But today's post is pregnancy related.

The other night I watched a documentary on Discovery Health Channel called "Paralyzed and Pregnant". It is about a woman named Michelle Carston, who at 23 years old dove into shallow water off the coast of Mexico and injured her spinal cord. She is now a quadriplegic.

This story hit close to home because my brother-in-law is also a quadriplegic caused by a diving accident when he was a teenager. Something I didn't know until I met Mike is that there are varying degrees of paralysis in quadriplegics. It all depends on where your spine is injured. So many quadriplegics have some use of their arms. Such is the case with Mike. And also with Michelle, who has quite a bit of upper body movement.

When Michelle was in her mid-thirties she met and married her husband and 11 months later she got pregnant. She endured an incredibly difficult pregnancy and was then able to deliver her baby boy vaginally. I was so inspired by her. She has immense challenges, but her dream was to be a mother. The pregnancy took a huge toll on her body. And the birth was amazing! She didn't want a cesarean. She had an epidural and actually pushed the baby out. The doctor also used the vacuum to help.

Michelle then had a very long recovery, and her husband is truly a saint! He has had to take on the bulk of the responsibility because obviously Michelle can't do a lot, especially right after the birth. I got emotional watching him do so much. You can see the love he has for his wife and son in his service to them.

Watching this documentary made me so grateful for all that I have. I'm so grateful for my healthy body! I'm grateful for my loving husband. And I'm extremely grateful for the little baby that is growing inside me. I pray that he/she will be healthy too.

The film was made in 2005. Unfortunately I couldn't find much updated information on Michelle and her family. If you are interested in watching it, Discovery Health Channel is showing it again Saturday, Dec 15, at 11:00 am.

fasting good for the heart?

Those who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints know all about fasting. The first Sunday of every month we are asked to skip two meals and donate the money we would have spent on those meals to help the needy. (I personally find fasting to be really difficult and was quite excited to realize that now that I am pregnant I won't have to do it for awhile! Don't judge.) But now there is new evidence that fasting is helping more than those who benefit from the donated money. New research suggests that fasting may be good for our hearts.

The Associates Press is reporting that a study conducted in Salt Lake "found that people who skipped meals once a month were about 40 percent less likely to be diagnosed with clogged arteries than those who did not regularly fast."

Benjamin Horne, a heart disease researcher from Intermountain Medical Center and the University of Utah led the study.

"It might suggest these are people who just control eating habits better," and that this discipline extends to other areas of their lives that improves their health, Horne told the AP.

The research was partly funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Horne says that this study is not proof that fasting is a great idea for everyone, but that it should be studied more.

Interesting, don't you think?

nine months

We've made it 3/4 of a year! Nine months ago today, Jared and I became Mr. and Mrs.
Since I have them so handily available on my computer here, I will subject you to a few more photos from that March day.

Speaking of nine months....

What is that stick we are so happy to be holding? Why, it's this:

That's right folks! I'm knocked up! We've known for 10 whole days, and I have been DYING to spill the beans here in blogland, but somehow managed to wait. Of course, that doesn't mean I waited to tell my family... nope, they heard the day I found out! I am six weeks pregnant and due August 3rd! It has been confirmed by the doctor and everything. Of course, there is still that chance of a miscarriage this early on, but I decided I couldn't wait until week 13 (so far away!) to share the news. I am SO excited! And I need to be able to talk about it. Luckily, I haven't really been sick yet. No throwing up anyway. Just some mild queasiness and cramps. And moderate exhaustion! I think it will be a miracle if I don't get the pukes, but here's hoping right?