Excelerated Growth Continues in Week 17...

Antoinette's uterus is now clearly able to be felt just 1.5 to 2 inches below her navel, feeling more or less like a hard grapefruit in there. 5-10 pounds of weight gain is average for a new Mother at this point, although I believe Antoinette is on the short end of that figure. We have also reached the "baggy is better" clothing stage that sits between normal clothes and maternity clothes. Mom is pretty sure she has felt her baby move, but the "moving" is not consistent quite yet, so we're not positive that's really what it is. Feeling daily moving is not normal at this point since its so early in that early movement stage. It is normal for Antoinette's gums and nose to bleed at this point due to the dramatically increased blood volume in her body putting increased pressure into her capillaries and blood vessels, but we haven't seen this happen yet either. For the baby, that chubby baby brown fat begins to appear. The baby will continue to get chubbier from here on out. The fat is critical for heat production and body metabolism. At this point, the baby will have just half a percent of fat tissue making up its body, but at the time of its birth, the baby will consist of nearly 70% fat tissue. The placenta, not wanting to be left behind by a rapidly developing baby, continues to strain to keep pace, growing itself at a rapid pace. While it will never be bigger than the baby again, it will be a healthy 1 pound at birth. It is a massive network of blood vessels acting as a nutrient and waste highway for the baby. As you can tell by the picture, in just 4 months, this baby has come a long way from the multi celled zygote that it began as just 15 short weeks ago (remember, pregnancy weeks are measured from the first day of the last cycle, not from fertilization, which may take place technically, at week 2 of pregnancy). While it looks human, it is still very small and could easily fit in the palm of your hand. At birth, the baby will be about 30 times its present size in this photo, in terms of body weight. Notice the placental mass to the right of the baby, the umbilical piercing the amniotic sac, and the head that has reached a realistic proportion to the body size. This picture of a 4 month old fetus debuted in LIFE Magazine in 1965. An issue of LIFE cost just 35 cents. This baby is now over 40 years old.

4 Months at the End of This Week!!!

The growth spurt is about to begin. Over the course of the next couple weeks, this baby will double in size and add inches to its length. The baby's legs are much more developed and its head is able to be held a bit more upright than ever before. The eyes continue to migrate toward the front of the face and the ears are still moving, as well. Both are nearing their final resting place. The hair patterns on the scalp have begun to develop (baby's first cowlick?), the fingerprints have begun to develop, and the baby's flexibility is vastly improved. The baby weighs about 1/4 pound at this stage and is just under five inches long.

Antoinette's Birthday Finishes Week 16...

Today, Antoinette turned 21 years old!!! Happy birthday, my lovely wife. Let's see what's going on in your belly today. After completing the 16th week, the baby is consistently funneling amniotic fluid through its lungs, helping to develop its primitive air sacs that will eventually pull oxygen from the air. All joints and limbs are fully functional. While the eyelids are still fused shut, the baby can sense light now. If you were to shine a flashlight at the belly, the baby would make a conscientious effort to move out of the way of the light and cover its eyes with its hands. Antoinette's body has produced more blood and more hormones, and her circulation is much more efficient. The oil gland functions combined with the increased blood and hormone levels will create the telltale "glow" that pregnant women are known for now, as their skin may appear to literally glisten. The baby may begin its first bought with hiccups as this reflex has developed. With muscle and bone defined and developing, the baby has moved to developing fat tissue. The baby has reached a milestone as for the first time, it has caught the placenta in size. From here on out, the baby will be larger than the placenta. The genitals, male or female, are fully developed and a sonography should be fairly accurate in determining gender. We go in a week and a half to find out. The improved circulatory system is allowing the baby to pump 25 quarts of blood daily. By full term, that figure will increase to 1900 quarts daily, or nearly 500 gallons.

16 Week Belly Picture!!!

Without getting into too much detail, this is the month where the method of feeding the baby begins to kick into gear. Blood flow to this general area increases by up to 50%. Inside, the baby has developed the ability to hold its head upright. Remember that the baby is in a fluid, so this skill is easier than when the baby is born and that head is flopping all over the place. With vastly more developed muscle tissue in the face, the baby can squint, frown, and open its mouth. Bones are developed enough to show up on x-rays now. The fingernails are well formed now and the legs have no surpassed the arms in length. This week, the baby has a far better and stronger range of motion than in the past and that makes this week the first week that the baby can be felt by the Mother, supposedly feeling like gas bubbles or fluttering. Often times, the first movement of the baby may not be felt until week 20, especially in first time pregnancies, but Antoinette may be lucky. Over the past day or so, she has felt a slight bump, usually in three or four consecutive taps that she said could easily be gas bubbles. They are in the center of her belly and don't last very long. For you Moms out there, a little help please. Is this baby kicking or gas bubbles? Finally, at this point, pregnant women can begin to notice their hearts beating faster and harder, sometimes even "louder" in their chests. This is because the body is now pumping 20-25% more blood through her system than normal. 11 days until we find out the gender!!!

Week 16 & 2 Weeks Until Gender is Revealed...

...and all of the very unscientific wives tale website polls, including the Chinese baby gender calendar say that we are having a baby girl. We'll find out in two weeks whether that's the case or not. That being said, despite the country being populated 51% female and 49% male, statistically you are slightly more likely to give birth to a baby boy. For every 1,000 baby girls born in this country, there are 1,048 boys born. Its the whole outliving us thing that keeps you girls up on us in overall population.

This week, the baby is 4.5 inches in length, crown to rump (head to butt), which is about the size of the mouse you are using to click around this page right now. Keeping pace with that baby growth is Antoinette's uterus and placenta. The uterus is about 75% larger than it was just 6 weeks ago. The baby inside of there weighs in at just over three and a half ounces and at this stage, can grasp things (like an umbilical cord), kick Mom (we'll cover that tomorrow), and even perform its first somersault!!! Ta-da!!!

Week 15 Wrap Up...

After another full week of development, this kid has all sorts of talents. It can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, suck its thumb, and even change expressions. The development of the facial muscles have reached a point where they can manipulate the child's face now. The kidneys continue to recycle amniotic fluid which is gulped down, processed, and secreted as urine, something it will continue to fine tune until birth. The baby can also grasp. Tomorrow, we'll welcome you all into week 16. While we don't have a picture of Antoinette this week (which we'll get you early in Week 16), we do have a scale picture of the baby now. Look at how small it is, yet how incredibly developed in some of the other pictures. Really quite amazing. Two and a half weeks until "it" becomes a "he" or "she".

Look at that Picture!!!

The baby's growth rate continues to be incredible, looking more and more like a miniature newborn baby every day. The skin is still thin enough to see organs and blood vessels through. At this point, the lanugo hair is covering the baby's body. If there will be hair on the baby's head at birth, which may not be the case since rumor has it, I was virtually bald until I was two years old, the head hair and eyebrows begin to grow in this week. The baby is very flexible and can bend her elbows and wrists easily. Combine that with fist making abilities and we have a recipe for some thumb sucking, which begins, as well, in week 15. Eyes and ears continue to look more and more normal every week and the bones continue to grow stronger and harder with increases in calcium.

Welcome to Week 15!!!

The baby is a little over 4 inches, crown to rump, at this point and weighs a pinch under 2 ounces. About the size of a softball, the growth has just begun to push out on it's Momma's belly. The uterus should be able to be felt by pressing 3-4 inches below the belly button. As it continues to expand to make room for an increasingly larger baby, Antoinette will be able to follow the progress just by pressing on her belly. The doctor readjusted the baby's due date from April 15th to....April 14th!!! I know. Its a bit anticlimatic, but it was for me too when she told me we needed to change the due date. I wasn't expecting the change to be one day, but oh well. That's theoretically one day sooner we get to meet the little pooping machine. Best due date measurements can be determined by the size of the head, so we could see another adjustment before all is said and done. Since this measurement is done with the next ultrasound, it won't be until November 21st, when get find out the gender. But who can wait until November 21st for all of that good news, right? So I called and moved the date up to November 7th, so this little one will go from being "it" or "baby" to "he" or "she" a little sooner than we anticipated. Now I really need votes.

Week 14 Wrap Up

Time is really flying now. In two hours, we begin week 15 already. Wow. That's three and a half months in. As we wrap up week 14, the baby's facial features are passing some key points of development. Cheeks and the bridge of the nose take shape and the development of lanugo. Lanugo is that fine hair that grows all over the baby we briefly discussed in a previous post. These fine hairs grow in swirl patterns that follow the grain of the skin. They will later give way to fingerprints. Prior to birth, the baby will shed the lanugo and it will be replaced by thicker, coarser hair. The baby's thyroid has reached a critical point where it can now join into the hormone production of the child. The boy/girl developments continue as well. If we have a boy, the prostate appears. And if we have a girl, the egg filled ovaries descend from the abdomen into the pelvis. The embryo's soft cartilage is now being replaced all over by a soft chalky bone material that will later develop into solid bone. On to week 15 a host of new milestones!!!

Baby Development Updates for Week 14...

If we are having a girl, which we won't know for quite some time, her little ovaries will already have over 2 million eggs in them. Essentially, our grandchildren are in there. How crazy is that? The baby is continuing to grow at an incredible rate and is about 4 inches long now, crown to rump, or about the length of a typical cell phone or a man's fist. Although it hasn't happened yet, Antoinette should soon start to get her energy level back to normal. She will be able to feel her uterus by pressing on her midsection and track its progress. The baby has eye brows, but no eye lashes, and a very fine hair has begun to grow all over its body. We'll talk more about that tomorrow.

I'm attaching a picture of some little feet at this stage. Notice the arterial and vascular growth in the legs, as well as the rudimentary bones beginning to develop. The toes and feet are fully shaped and continue to develop at a normal rate.

2nd Trimester Kicks Off with a Trip to the Doc...

On Friday, Antoinette and I took a visit to the doctor's office for her routine 4 week visit. The doctor ran some tests, including blood work, which we'll get the results of sometime this week. Also, she performed a physical exam of Antoinette and told us that everything is moving along right on schedule. Antoinette's pelvic bone structure is a good, healthy shape for a natural delivery. She also used a Fetal Doppler to pick up the baby's rapidly beating hearbeat and play it through a speaker so we could hear it. The heart rate is about double an normal adult heart rate. All very good, very healthy signs.

From a development standpoint, the baby has formed its own tiny fingerprints already. The veins and organs are clearly visible through the very thin skin and the body size is beginning to catch up with the head in terms of natural proportions, now only taking up 1/3 of the overall body length, as opposed to the previous 1/2 dimensions.

Finally, not that this is relevant in any scientific way, but all four hokey online tests we used to determine the baby's gender have all come back that we are having a girl. One uses the baby's heart rate to make the call, one uses the Chinese Lunar Calendar, and two use composites of a dozen or so old wives tales. All have been proven to be completely unreliable, but there's something to be said for going 4 for 4, right? I still think its going to be a girl and Antoinette thinks boy, but last night, Antoinette dreamed we were having a girl. Did it change her mind? Nope. Her motherly intuition is saying boy still. We'll find out on November 21st.

First Trimester is in the Books!!!!

I know I'm one day late on this, but I finally got a picture of Antoinette's belly. I want to send two pictures of Antoinette, a side view and a back view (which was requested by some gender guessers out there), but the Mom-to-be is a bit reluctant on the picture from behind at this point, so we're negotiating. But I do have it "in my files". In the meantime, you get a side view and the first major signs of a belly pushing out!!!

As for baby development updates, the baby has a milky membrane surrounding it now. That membrane has two layers, pierced only by the umbilical cord. Through this cord, the baby is getting all of its oxygen, nutrients, and most of its hormones, all of which are coming from a self sufficient placenta. The key hormones are Progesterone and Estriol, which are essential ingredients during a pregnancy. The head and limbs have begun developing firm bone tissue and the nose and chin are taking shape. The ears and eyes should have reached their final destinations on the face after migrating around a bit. The sockets for all of the teeth are there and vocal cords begin development. Also, if viewed from the outside of the womb, the gender of the baby is clearly distinguishable now, although we won't be able to learn the true identity of this one until November 21st. In the meantime, we'll just have to keep taking guesses from you all. Right now, we have half for boy and half for girl. If you haven't voted, weight in!!!

The 1st Trimester is in the books!!! We're 1/3 of the way there already. Hard to believe, isn't it?

Week 13 Test Results...

Antoinette was greeted this morning with the best news of the day. The genetic testing was back on the baby. The baby tested negative for Trisomy 21 and two other similar genetic abnormalities. Trisomy 21 is Down Syndrome. The blood testing, combined with nasal and neck skin fold development measurements, as well as Antoinette's age and the prevalence of the disorder in our family background indicates a very low probability, in the neighborhood of 1 in 10,000 or so, of the child having this condition. Outstanding news!!!

Also, as an extra special treat, I'm attaching a Youtube video that is about as close to what our own ultrasound was like. You've all seen the picture, now you can see what it looks like when a 12 week baby is bouncing around in the uterus on the ultrasound. Now, when you watch this, remember that our baby was moving much more than this one, but still watch the video as you will get to see some karate chops, kicking, and hand waving, all of which we saw from our little one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCZSjoJLpoE&feature=related

On a final note, Antoinette's next visit to the doctor is on October 10th, next Friday, at 7:45 AM. On this visit, she will have another quick exam and she will meet the midwife for the first time.

And we're taking a poll. Who thinks we're having a boy and who thinks we're having a girl? Antoinette says boy and I say girl. Email us and let us know what you think!!!