10 Weeks

Though he's barely the size of a kumquat — a little over an inch or so long, crown to bottom — and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce, your baby has now completed the most critical portion of his development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature.

9 weeks!

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.

First Ultrasound

8 Weeks

From Babycenter.com:
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.

Crazy stuff!!!

Houston, we have a heartbeat!

We had our first ultrasound yesterday and got to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was, by far, the best sound I have ever heard in my life! We were so nervous and anxious to know everything was ok. It was amazing the see the little blueberry on the screen and see the heart flickering. Words can't even describe it!

We found out that I'm not as far along as we thought, so my due date was moved from September 16th to September 25th. Four more weeks until we're out of the woods.

Because of Ryan's trip going over and then the snow storm, we're JUST NOW able to tell our parents. So excited!! We're telling Ryan's family tonight and then driving down to tell my family tomorrow. This should be one crazy weekend!

Keep Your Appointment

It's official! I visited the doctor and got the results of my blood test back. The nurse on the phone said three beautiful words when she delivered the results: "Keep your appointment." She was referring to my follow up prenatal appointment and sonogram that they'd scheduled when I was there before. Ahhhh it's really real! I floated on my cloud right into Giant and stocked up on lots of healthy, organic foods...and maybe a small chocolate ice cream cake, but that was really more for Josh, so it was ok. So now we wait. Hopefully, on February 11th we'll get to hear a tiny little heartbeat!!