How your baby’s growing:

This week’s big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him — a process he’ll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you’re having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb (I’ll add an ultrasound photo of this later today)

In other news: Your baby’s stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon — and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces. His body’s growing faster than his head, which now sits upon a more distinct neck. By the end of this week, his arms will have grown to a length that’s in proportion to the rest of his body. (His legs still have some lengthening to do.) He’s starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over his body. Your baby’s liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it’s doing its job right — and his spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though you can’t feel his 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.

Here is our baby today (5/9/2008)!

See ya next week!

So, according to my books, the first trimester is 13 weeks long.  I knew there was something tricky about the trimesters!  So, I’ve got a few more days before I expect to receive my promised second wind.  This will be great because Jeff & I leave Saturday for St. John for a short (and much needed) vacation!!

I’ll update Friday before I go with a 13 week picture (if I have time to take it!) & my 14 week picture will not be against a white door in my house, but me on my balcony of the condo we’re staying in.  Yes, folks, you heard me right.  The Cronins will not be staying at their usualy spot, Maho Bay Camps, but will be staying at Estate Lindholm (where they spent the first two days of their honeymoon).  Jeff is splurging so that I can have a potty nearby without shoes and a flashlight required and air conditioning just in case it is hot, hot, hot!

We loved Estate Lindholm two years ago (go here) and I left this travel report.
I can’t wait to get back there and hang out with the owners and resident kitties!  Maybe I can sneak some Carib back for after I give birth!  It is the only beer I have ever actually liked.

All is well in baby land!  Talk to you soon!!

Yep – I’m done with the first 12 weeks of my pregnancy – it is amazing to me!  Here is what BabyCenter.com says about what is happening inside me:

How your baby’s growing:

The most dramatic development this week: Reflexes. Your baby’s fingers will soon begin to open and close, his toes will curl, his eye muscles will clench, and his mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won’t be able to feel it. His intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into his abdominal cavity about now, and his kidneys will begin excreting urine into his bladder.

Meanwhile, nerve cells are multiplying rapidly, and in your baby’s brain, synapses are forming furiously. His face looks unquestionably human: His eyes have moved from the sides to the front of his head, and his ears are right where they should be. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over two inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.

Now, what I can’t quite get straight in my head is this: Is this the decription of what is going on this coming week?  Or what happened this past week?  I’m assuming it is what is happening this week now that I’ve finished 12 weeks.  I think that is right.

I’ll post my 12 week picture this weekend!!

So, for the first time in my pregnancy I got sick today!  What on earth?  Is this some lame joke?

Now, I’ve been nauseous on and off through out the pregnancy and I do have very strong food aversions (please do not serve me chicken or pork!), but I haven’t actually gotten sick until today.

I got up, got dressed and got ready to follow Jeff to VW to drop off his car for inspection.  I fixed a bagel (very normal breakfast for me), but about half way through, I didn’t want it so I threw it away.  I decided to drink some OJ so that I could get my prenatal vitamin down.

Pants ironed and on the man, treats in the cats and dog and we were out the door.  Picked Jeff up from VW and headed to Chesterfield to drop him off at the Arboretum.  When we were almost there I started feeling really nauseous (again, very normal) and decided to grab my normal stomach settler, McD’s hashbrowns (2) and a small coke.  I dropped Jeff off and headed to McD’s, making it to the parking lot before the upchuck started.  No details – I promise.

I’ll just say I drove to an empty parking lot nearby so no one would see me getting sick and decide to skip breakfast that morning.  I then called Jeff and asked him to meet me in his parking lot with wet paper towels and tissues.  Once I got myself together, I headed to a gas station for a coke & then home.  So much for training for work today.

I’ve laid on the couch & slept a lot and now I’m going to do a couple things to get ready for work tomorrow.  Jeff’s car is ready so I’ll be heading to get him and to VW soon.  I’m supposed to go grocery shopping today, but I’m really not feeling it.  We’ll see if Jeff can fend for himself food-wise for tonight and I’ll go shopping tomorrow.

Lesson to future pregger women – always have supplies on hand for when the sickness hits.  Just because you’ve gone nearly 12 weeks without getting sick, doesn’t mean it won’t sneak up on you!

Hope all your days are not so icky!

So Warren made me originally start this Xanga blog as a way for him to keep up with me.  Since then, he’s ditched Xanga and I’ve gotten a myspace page and a facebook page.  You’d think that would be enough.

Nope – he wants a Baby Blog now.  So I’m granting him his wish.  My goal is to update weekly on what is going on inside & outside me.  I will try to update more than I can right now – work is really busy.

As of today, I am 11 weeks 4 days pregnant.  For former pregnant ladies, that does not count any time prior to conception because I had a short monthly visitor after I was pregnant.  My dates were set using an ultrasound.

So far, the baby is named BEAN until we find out if we’re having a boy or girl.  After that, we’ll start calling Bean by his/her to-be-given name.

I’ll post pregnancy pics, too, but the one from last week is on my computer at home.

Thanks for checking in and keeping up with me!

My Valentine’s 2008:

For the 29 days of February, my friend Kim’s blog will be updated every day (matter fact, I copied this whole post from Kim’s blog), each with a focus on creating awareness for this overlooked, but very important health crisis. The blog will feature facts about this sometimes deadly defect, stories of inspiration and courage, and ideas for ways that you can help to spread the word about CHD and the need for public attention, government action and research funding. Throughout the month links will be added to support groups, research, facts and other useful information.

On each of the 7 days of the official CHD Awareness week (Feb. 7-14th, 2008), lists of seven items relating to CHD will be provided. Let’s see how creative it can get! Feel free to send in your ideas for lists of 7.

Send ideas, get inspired and most importantly – SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT CHD!!

I’m not sure what is leading me to share this with everyone, but I am weeping over the death of someone who is a stranger to me.  Warren had a friend in college named Grete (not the person who died).  My family met Grete at my dad’s mom’s funeral in 2001.  Grete rode up from college with Warren so that he didn’t have to drive back to college if he was too upset to drive – she’d drive.  We really fell in love with her.  She was just a great person.
After they graduated college, Warren & Rachel’s circle of friends went all over the nation.  Grete & her husband, Aaron, went to Chicago for Grete to attend grad school at DePaul.  During her time in Chicago, Grete blogged and I read.  I’m not sure what originally led me to Grete’s blog – I think I got there through being connected to Warren’s xanga circle.  Grete had xanga (I think) and when she moved her blog, I followed to continue reading.
Let me say here that Grete is an amazing writer.  She says things that I feel in words that I could never come up with.
One of her blogging subjects in Chicago was a very old family member who was a nun.  Her name was Sister Sponsa.  I guess that is still her name – do we lose our name in death?  I’ve never thought of that.
Anyway, I read about Sister Sponsa and enjoyed Grete’s posts about her.  Sister Sponsa was in her mid-nineties when Grete started writing about her.

I often commented on Grete’s blogs about Sister Sponsa.  See, my grandfather (dad’s dad) passed away after a mighty fight in March 2005.  He was 90.  I felt he had been taken from me way too soon.  I didn’t know how to deal with losing him.  He’d been living in Richmond with us for a couple years and had been in the assisted living home within a mile of our house for less than a year.  After he moved out of our house and into Chestnut Grove, I went to visit just about every single day.  We watched Oprah together and sometimes Dr. Phil if I got there early enough after class.
I took time to take apart all of he and grandma’s photo albums with the plan to create a separate photo album of each of his four children.  I never got that far.  At his funeral I gave each child a box with their name on it filled with photos from my grandpa.

Grete blogged today that Sister Sponsa passed away this week.  Though I didn’t know her, I sure felt like I did.  At the very least, I understood how Grete felt when visiting her.

Here is part of one of Grete’s posts (Feb 3, 2006):

Some weeks, weeks when she is falling asleep and hardly seems to notice me, I wonder why I come. There are days when we have nothing to say–I’ve already asked about the family, she knows nothing of current events, anything new is too complicated to explain, she does the same thing every day, her eyes and her throat and her stomach are still bad, and it still hurts to swallow, to drink water, to eat food, to sit up. On these days, days when I don’t even know if she will remember I was there, I wonder why I come, why I have kept coming for a year and a half now. I used to come for her, now I think I come for me.
Every week I walk in and step into the elevator and scan the medical prayer request sheet, half hoping her name isn’t on it, half hoping it is. I hope her name isn’t on the list because I’m not ready; I hope it is because she is.

And here is my response to that post (Feb 9, 2006):

The end of March marks a year since my grandfather passed away. He was so sick the last three months, there were days he didn’t know who we were & talked to people who were long gone from this earth. My father held vigil by his side through the good days and the bad that last three months.
We went because in the moments he was awake and lucid, we wanted him to know we were there and that we loved him no matter what.
We never wanted him to wake up alone.
Go, go whenever you are strong enough to go. Even if she does not acknowledge your presence, she feels it and it makes a difference.

I am weeping tonight reading through Grete’s posts on Sister Sponsa.  I’m weeping because I never met her.  I’m weeping because Grete lives in VA now and wasn’t there at the very end.  I’m weeping because I miss my grandpa.
Please pray for Grete.  Please pray for Grete’s family.  Please pray for the nuns in the home where Sister Sponsa lived after she was too old to work as a nun.  She is home with her Father above – what could be more exciting.  Grete’s words about the list in the elevator bring that home the best.

Thanks for letting me vent.  I don’t think I expected to react to losing a stranger in the way that I did.

So, Jeff and I are attending a party tonight at the Amos house (sorry if you were not invited).  It is their 8th Annual 12th Night Party.  There have been occasions when this was our little group’s annual gift exchange; however, as the group has expanded and grown it has become a fun night to get together and be social.

This year, the Amoses threw down a challenge as the “cover” for the party.  We are each to bring a personally designed mixed CD to exchange.  We’ll contribute ours as we enter and draw at random as we leave.  At first, I was not looking forward to this challenge.  I even asked if I could contribute the mixed CD that Jeff and I gave out as wedding favors nearly two years ago (about half the party already own these).  We were encouraged to have a theme (if we so desired) and I figured that my wedding would be theme enough.

Well, I decided yesterday to tackle the project and make a personal CD from me to whomever.  I now hope that my whomever is female because I’m unsure how many males will appreciate my 11 selections.

I decided to share with you what I chose to add and why:

GIRL POWER (Songs that make me feel like a girl)
1. Lady Marmalade – Christina, Pink, Lil Kim & Mya
Because somewhere within, we’re all a little bit “soul sister”
2. Get the Party Started – Pink
Even a shy girl becomes a sexy mama dancing to this behind a closed door where no one can see her shaking her thing.
3. Bitch – Meredith Brooks
Don’t we all harbor a small inner-bitch?  This is great for the gear up for some booty kicking!  I’m sorry, what did you call me?
p.s. Warren gave me this single when it came out…what is that about?  Do you think he was trying to tell me something?
4. Since U Been Gone – Kelly Clarkson
Sure, you dumped me, but how good does it feel that I’m the one better off?
5. I Want You to Want Me – Letters to Cleo (10 Things I Hate About You)
I do love you, but it’s not like I’m gonna tell YOU that!
6. Bring On The Day – Charlotte Martin (Sweet Home Alabama)
A great way to start a day when I’m on the way to take over the world!  I am seriously ready to go after hearing this!
7. Fidelity – Regina Spektor
My sis-in-law, Rachel, turned me on to this.  I just like it!
8. Mine All Mine – SheDaisy (Sweet Home Alabama)
Sure we make mistakes…but they make us stronger!
9. Every Little Thing She Does is Magic – The Police
Because we all need to know we’re “magic”.
10. If I Didn’t Know Any Better – Alison Krauss & Union Station
My friend, Danny (who is the guitarist at church), gave me a tape with a few Alison Krauss songs on it.  One was Living Prayer which he wanted me to sing with him playing (we did that for Easter 07).  Another was this song.  It was odd coming from him, but I think he liked the tones of the song.  I couldn’t help but notice that it was a song about that guy who is bad news – the one we’re not supposed to fall for or maybe an old flame – that we find ourselves totally drawn to.  I actually feel something when I listen to this song.
11. She – Elvis Costello (Notting Hill)
Granted, this song plays as we watch beautiful Julia Roberts do the red carpet thing, but don’t we all want someone to feel this way about us?  I just like to imagine that this is the song Jeff hears when he looks at me (though I think sometimes he can’t help to hear 3).  It is just nice to imagine this song was written for every woman and not one in particular.

Now I feel the need to tell you that Jeff got really excited at the idea of creating and sharing a mixed CD.  His is NINETEEN songs long and called, “Bands from the 80’s and Their Offspring”.
It is a great CD and I have been listening to it while writing this blog.

Good times…I’ll let you know what CD I end up with!