Week 14

How your baby's growing:

This week's big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck her thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, her facial muscles are getting a workout as her tiny features form one expression after another. Her kidneys are producing urine, which she releases into the amniotic fluid around her — a process she'll keep up until birth. She can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch her sucking her thumb.

In other news: Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, she measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon — and she weighs 1 1/2 ounces. Her body's growing faster than her head, which now sits upon a more distinct neck. By the end of this week, her arms will have grown to a length that's in proportion to the rest of her body. (Her legs still have some lengthening to do.) She's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over her body. Your baby's liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it's doing its job right — and her spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though you can't feel her tiny punches and kicks yet, your little pugilist's hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active.

 

I can't believe how fast this is going! Ok, not really, but at least we have lots of good stuff coming up in the next few weeks and that helps. It shouldn't be long before I can feel her move and we're only 3 weeks away from knowing for sure that it's a little Vivienne in there and not a Tristan. I'll be out buying pink in no time!

The nausea is pretty much completely gone. I still get waves now and then when  I need to eat but those are easily remedied. The worst part of this right now is the sleeplessness. I miss getting a good night's sleep without tossing and turning, weird dreams, and potty trips. The other night I dreamt that I was dancing in the Olympics...with a guy from my high school cheerleading squad...wearing a cowboy costume....and dancing to Cotton Eyed Joe. Yeah. It was totally bizarro. I just miss sleep. I'm so exhausted, but it doesn't even seem to matter. Oh, and here's a fun new development: hemorrhoids. You read that right. Why not just be honest? There are little bumps on my heiney and it hurts to poo. Another sweet, sweet gift from my tummy-dweller. I have to say, I don't have much experience with this darker side of pregnancy. My first baby was textbook. No complications and no nasty side effects like puberty face or heiney bumps. This is a penalty for my smugness. (Is that a word?) After Logan I was all "This pregnancy has been soooo easy. I just looooove being pregnant. I haven't dealt with any of those nasty things that I hear people talk about. Blah...blah...blah...." This is what I get. I'm willing to bet that this time I'll experience every nasty pregnancy symptom and I may even make up some of my own. That better damn well be a girl in there.

On a more positive note, we had a lovely dinner date Saturday night! We ADORE Tony's new lady and she fit right in. We're not sure what she sees in him, but there must be something...  ;)

We had a really relaxing Valentine's Day yesterday. Really low key. We made an amazing dinner courtesy of a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and followed it with tiramisu (from Target) and homemade chocolate covered strawberries. Then I watched Tool Academy in one room while he played Mass Effect in a different room. Veeeeery romantic! Lol. Really, it was a nice night. He was really smiley and affectionate all weekend and I enjoyed an unusual amount of attention even with us spending a few hours in separate rooms. Oh, and I got a BEAUTIFUL necklace! He always buys me blue topaz to match my engagement ring (though it is actually a darker topaz) and the earrings he bought me as wedding gift (which he thought would match my engagement ring but didn't).

So how was your Valentine's Day???

Baby pictures via Google Images

Necklace from Macy's