16 Weeks

We're up to 4.5inches and 3.5ounces! In the next few weeks, our baby is going to double his/her weight and add inches to it's length; combined with the hardening of the bones, I should be able to feel him/her moving very soon! The head is now sitting more erect on the neck, the eyes have moved closer together on the face, and the ears are almost to their final position as well. Our little boy/girl is practicing making some cute faces (lots of squinting, yawning, frowning, smiling, thumb-sucking, etc) for all of those pictures that are going to be taken in a few months ;) The toenails and fingernails are also starting to grow at the ends of the fingers and toes! The skin is still thin, transparent and pretty wrinkly - but those wrinkles will slowly start to smooth out in the coming weeks as fat begins to develop under the skin. The heart is developed and pumping - about 25 quarts of blood each day! (in addition to the blood it's getting from me, our baby's little growing body should be well-perfused!) If our little one is a girl, apparently her uterus is fully developed (obviously still will grow with the rest of her) and she has all of her primitive little eggs already...woah!

Changes are (noticeably) happening for me also - my bump is growing! This is because my uterus is moving upwards, now halfway between my pubic bone (way at the bottom of  my pelvis) and my belly button. As mentioned in the previous post, my ligaments continue to loosen and stretch out in preparation for an expanding pelvis, oh joy :) Haven't really noticed a whole lot of changes (other than my ever-expanding body) and the complete disappearance of nausea (yippee!!). Still have heartburn after about every meal, but Tums has become one of my new best friends :)

We have our 16week appointment on Thursday afternoon - hoping to hear that developed and pumping heart beating away! Also have our Quad Screen (a simple blood draw from my arm) that will help the doctors to see any markers for neurological abnormalities (a big help at birth in case anything is out of the norm) - please be praying that everything is normal!

Also would appreciate your prayers as we head back home this week (SO EXCITED!!). We're making the long drive home (splitting it up on the way back to Indiana) starting Thursday night and we'll be back in the Hoosier state until Wednesday morning when we start our drive back to Virginia. So excited to see family and friends - it's been way too long!

Thanks, again, for all of your love, support, and prayers - only 5 months to go until we meet little Baby Sanders!

15 Weeks

 Our little baby has reached the size of a large apple or orange this week (and this Mama feels like it's really the size of a watermelon...oh boy, I still have a LLLOOONNNGGG way to go!) Definitely starting to look more like I'm pregnant rather than just getting fat...exciting!

Baby Sanders is growing at break-neck speeds, and will continue to do so (especially through this trimester) - we've reached 4inches long (about the length of 1 Kit Kat stick) and weigh about 2.5 ounces. Starting at the top and working down, we'll start with the head - we have hair growing!! Not much just yet, but it's starting! Eyebrows and eyelashes are forming along the eyelids - they're still fused, but our baby can now sense bright lights and move away from them! We'd really like to test this theory by shining a flashlight at my belly but there are 2 problems with this: 1) we may be torturing our child and 2) we, unfortunately, can't feel it move away so we'd have no idea if this is really true our not...maybe we'll just have to wait a few more weeks :-D. Moving down on the face, the taste buds are forming on the tongue (even though he/she still has awhile before they'll be tasting anything). Our baby is also starting to strengthen it's little lungs by moving amniotic fluid (eww) through it's nose and mouth into the upper respiratory tract to help those alveoli (little sacs in the lungs that allow for gas exchange from the lungs into the blood stream) develop. Because he/she is sucking in some amniotic fluid (again, yummy!), they may actually give themselves hiccups already - of course, he/she is still way too small for me to feel those just yet. The head is now fully resting on a well-developed neck, making him/her look much more human :) Also, our baby has been moving for a few weeks now, but as it gets bigger, I may be able to feel little "flutters" (which probably is now being blamed on gas bubbles...sorry baby!) and will soon be able to feel little movements in a few weeks! So many new developments every week, such an exciting time for us!

What a 15week fetus supposedly looks like - in a slightly more animated, cartoon version

As for me, well, let's just say there's a pronounced "bump" now that most people who know me are noticing. I definitely noticed a difference in the mirror the other day, as did Tyler who so lovingly looked at his wife's quickly protruding abdomen and said "We're sure there aren't two in there, right?!" Thanks, dear :) Haha! But, as "huge" as I feel now, I know there's so much farther to grow and it's exciting to know that I'm growing because our baby is growing and developing as he/she should.  The estimate is that I should have gained about 5lbs by now...I'd say that's pretty accurate! As far as pregnancy symptoms, things are definitely on the upswing! Still have the heartburn and more frequent gas pains/cramps, but the nausea has pretty much completely subsided (thank you, Lord!). Also don't have to go to the bathroom quite as much (which was very helpful on our camping/hiking trip last weekend)...yay! Starting to feel my energy return (even though I did sleep a lot last night AND take a 1hr nap by 10am...oops! I blame that on work, not the baby ;) ) and I'm finding that I really like sleeping on my left side, which coincidentally is how I'll need to be sleeping in a few more months. Definitely liking this second trimester thing - much better than the last!

I mentioned a camping trip (side story time)...we went camping near Roanoke, VA with our friends Jon and Rachel last weekend. You all should be very impressed...we hiked about 17miles in 2 days (yes, even with my ever loosening ligaments which really doesn't help the already clumsy :/) and stayed at a campground with no electricity or running water. We had a blast! Hiked three awesome hikes in two days and took lots of awesome pictures - unfortunately they are all on our friends' cameras so we'll share them once we get them :) For now, some are on Facebook and we're "tagged" in them - check them out! The weather was perfect, the views were breathtaking, and the mosquitoes were few and far between! Perfect weekend trip - although we were very thankful to come home to our soft bed, warm shower, and cool air-conditioned condo :) Here are some preview pics from our friend, Rachel:

Hiking up to Dragon Tooth (action shot!) - lots of rocks to climb! Needless to say, not a super easy hike :)

View from top of Dragon Tooth - well worth the hike!

Next day - we hiked to McAfee's Knob - most photographed area on the Appalachian Trail (yes, we hiked part of the Appalachian trail both days!) - you can see why :) Absolutely beautiful!

Our group - Jon Wiegand, Rachel Bek, myself, and Tyler at the top of McAfee's knob. The trail head was already 2000ft above sea level, but we did hike about 1200ft up!

This next week holds a lot for us - lots of working on both our ends as we get ready to come home 1 week from tomorrow!! Also we have our next doctor's appointment next Thursday and we're having the Quad Screen done (the lab test I've been talking about for a few weeks now) - lots of stress and nerves to come our way these next few days. We'd welcome and appreciate prayers for peace during our busy work times, good test results, and good weather/safe travel as we head back to Indiana next week.

Hope all is going well for all of you, love and miss all of our friends and family back home so much! Thanks for all of your love and support through this exciting but life-changing time! More changes and developments to come next week!

14 Weeks

Well, in keeping with tradition, here is the size of our baby now...a lemon (no, that doesn't mean he/she is a sucker)! It seems to me that the shrimp was kind of a strange comparison between the lime and the lemon, but that's neither here nor there. The exciting news is that our baby is 8.36cm, or 3.29inches, and weighs about 2 ounces....still pretty little, but growing every day! Lots of developments coming this week...let's start with the head and work our way down. Our baby's brain is sending impulses to his/her face, causing different expressions (squint, grimace, frown, smile, suck his/her thumb) to form! The neck is stronger and more formed, which is supporting that large head that he/she is now growing into. The arms will be proportionately developed with the body after this week and the hands and feet are each about 1/2 inch long now, which will allow him/her to continue the wild and crazy punches, jabs and flips. Fingertips are developed too! Cool side note - we form our own fingertips when we're in the womb! The movements of the hands and fingers through the amniotic fluid, ridges and folds were formed which created our fingertips! Ultra-fine hair (called lanugo) is starting to appear all over the body, which acts as a protective, downy covering. The liver and spleen are also starting to function - producing bile and starting to produce red blood cells (respectively); the kidneys continue to excrete urine into the amniotic fluid and continue to mature with each week.

Last week, I included a cartoon image of what our baby looks like, so I'll include that this week too, but will also throw in a super fun, more accurate picture this week!

Here's our little boy/girl!

So exciting to see a real picture of him/her! The ultrasound was awesome - a surprise, but everything turned out OK. I had some cramping/bleeding on Friday morning and went in for a doctor's appointment at 2pm that day - we had an ultrasound and spoke with the midwife. Everything was normal, and our baby appears to be developing as scheduled! He/she was ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE!!! So much so that the technician asked if I had had any caffeine that day - we have quite the little acrobat inside! Seeing such an active baby and no signs of bleeding or abnormalities anywhere put our minds at ease :)

Today officially marks the first day of my second trimester! This means less nausea (hopefully none soon!), more energy, and more growth (or popping out of the belly) for me! The heartburn tends to persist, especially after fried foods, soda, and chips/salsa (which I unfortunately crave like it's nobody's business!). Things are going very well for us - we're still getting settled in to our new place. We're going on a camping trip this weekend with some friends, so that should be a fun little adventure for us!

Please continue to pray for the growth and development of our little one :) Although the second trimester signals a time with markedly less miscarriages, anything is still possible and we'd really like to see this baby come into the world (but not too early, dear little child!). Also continue to pray that the Quad Screen in 2 weeks will be normal and that our baby's nervous system will continue to develop appropriately. Lastly, please continue to pray for Tyler and I, as well as our families, as this baby continues to get bigger and time continues to pass, bringing us closer and closer to the reality that there will soon be THREE of us!!

Thanks for all of your love, support, and excitement for us! More info and pictures to come next week :)

13 Weeks

Apparently moving up in the world means you go from a lime to a medium-sized shrimp...who knew? :) In any case, our baby is the size of a medium shrimp this week, measuring about 3 inches long and weighing 1 oz. The head has become slightly more proportional to the body; it now makes up 1/3 of the total body size - must have a pretty big brain ;) He/She also has fingerprints (amazing!) and while all of the organs and circulation system are developed, you can still see them through the skin because it's so transparent. Side note - it's amazing how transparent and fragile the skin is on some of the babies I see at work (22-24 weeks) - you can see all of the veins and it has a sticky texture to it, which tends to tear very easily :( Little random fact that I found out this week (which I think is just so cool!) - if our baby is a girl, she has all of her eggs (around 2 MILLION of them, in fact) as of now! CRAZY! Here's a little picture of what our baby looks like at this stage in life :)

So, what's going on with me this week? First of all - we are OFFICIALLY out of our place on Yarmouth (yes, painted back to ALL WHITE, just like you wanted Jacob...sheesh!) and now have the daunting task of unpacking all of our stuff and getting set up on Colley. Last night we changed out the locks and doorknobs and also mounted our TV (antenna too - yep, no more cable!) - super exciting!! This past weekend we bought a shower curtain and new drapes for our living room/kitchen windows, along with the hardware for them - quite an expensive weekend it turned out to be! Things are slowly getting put together - I'll upload some pictures once we get a little more, ahem, livable.

Back to the pregnancy - did I mention IT'S THE LAST WEEK OF THE FIRST TRIMESTER?! I feel great this week! Ok, maybe not GREAT, but much better than the past 12 :) Still going to the bathroom quite a bit (unfortunately), definitely still have the heartburn (especially after fried foods, soda, and tomato-based or spicy things), and still have some slight nausea when I start to get hungry. All in all, can't complain too much! Slowly but surely getting some energy back, guess that means I'm losing my excuses to avoid the gym and unpacking :) Oh well, that means we're making progress!

Please continue to pray for our growing child - we are so very excited to meet him/her! Pray that he/she would be growing and developing according to plan, nice and strong and healthy :) Also pray that I can keep my emotions in check - this last week has been a little of a downer for me (I think I was just a tad bit over-stressed with all of the moving and painting). Lastly, please pray for our families back home in helping them identify with our child and feeling as much a part of this experience as they can (and maybe also throw in some extra prayers that visiting on both ends would be easily accomplished, especially in this next year or so!).

Thank you all for your love, support and prayers :) We appreciate you all very much!