12 Weeks

12 weeks

How Your Baby’s Growing (from Babycenter.com):

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 2 inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.

How far along: 12 weeks

Pregnancy symptoms: nausea, tiredness, headaches

Food Cravings: salty things like fries and potato chips, beef jerky, plain bagels with cream cheese

Food Aversions: most everything

Sleep: As long as my poor husband sleeps on the couch, I sleep very well.  I’m usually up 2-3 times and sometimes wake up much earlier than I’d like, but each time I get up to pee, I am able to go right back to sleep, and I think I sleep pretty soundly.  But I feel guilty Matt is on the couch.  :(

Measurement:  40 inches around

Movement: I feel things that could be babies moving, but are most likely not since it’s still so early.  But it stops and makes me think for a minute!

Labor signs: nothing yet

What I miss: I miss having energy to pick up and clean.  I miss the reduced sense of smell.  I miss not feeling nauseous.

What I’m looking forward to: I’m looking forward to my 12 week appointment on Thursday!

Milestone: 12 weeks seems kind of milestone-y, even though it’s not quite the end of the first trimester.  Though I really could be 1/3 through this pregnancy; that’s kind of scary.

Thoughts from the children: The girls talk about the babies a lot.  It’s so fun to have them engaged in what’s going on!

Doctor’s visit: I have an appointment on Thursday.  I may update then or wait until next week.

Other thoughts: I woke up yesterday feeling pretty good, as far as things go.  I was nauseous but it wasn’t debilitating, and I felt pretty rested from the weekend.  So I got a lot done around the house.  It was exhausting but I managed to really do a lot of picking up and vacuuming.  Matt had to help me finish up, but it feels so wonderful to have the house at least a little bit cleaner for a little while.  It won’t last long enough, but I’m going to enjoy it.  Today though I woke up just feeling awful.  I haven’t been able to keep much down, and I just want to lay on the couch and moan.  :)  Thankfully the kiddos are all at school for a few hours so I really can rest – no fixing food and changing diapers.  Those are the smelliest jobs.  :)  I have noticed that I tend to feel good on Mondays and like total crap on Tuesdays.  I have a feeling when I work hard on Monday morning I pay for it on Tuesday.  But maybe it’s just a fluke.

Baby-related projects:

• I need to start working on the maternity clothes situation.  DONE!  I got them all hung up and crammed in the closet – feels good to have a few choices of what to wear in the morning!