As of the 18th week (April 1), Tiddle was about 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and weighed almost 7 ounces. At that time, he/she was busy flexing its arms and legs — movements that I'm pretty sure I've started to notice more and more. I have felt little flutters here and there, but I'm not totally sure if that's the baby moving or not. His/her blood vessels are visible through thin skin, and the ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from its head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around the nerves, a process that will continue for a year after he/she's born. If we're having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If we're having a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, but he may hide them from us during an ultrasound. I sure hope the little one isn't shy when we go in for our ultrasound!
Our appointment to see the doctor and find out what we are having is THIS TUESDAY! I am soooo excited I can hardly stand it :) In a couple of days, Tiddle will have a real name hehe. The first appointment (when we will have our ultrasound) is going to be at 7:45 am in Arlington at the hospital where I'll be delivering, then it's over to the Mansfield office for a follow up with my doctor at 1:15 pm. They said that we can bring a DVD and they'll put the whole sono on it for us, I can't wait!
As of yesterday, I was 19 weeks along and can tell I've grown significantly since last week. If you look at the difference in my belly pics from last week to this week (below), you can definitely tell. About this time, our baby's sensory development is exploding! His/Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that he/she may be able to hear my voice now, so I might turn into one of those crazy pregnant ladies you see talking to her belly :) Tiddle now weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato. His/Her arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of the body now. The kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on the scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on its skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid.
In the past week I've also realized that I'm hungry WAY more often than I normally have been. I still haven't had any weird cravings I guess, other than when I had to leave work yesterday to go satisfy my need for a lunchable! haha. And for all of you moms out there, gotta love that round ligament pain. There are ligaments that stretch to support the growing weight of the uterus, and they sometimes cause shooting pain in my stomach when I move really sharply. The other day I was lying in bed and Russell made me laugh at something, which made my stomach instantly hurt due to the jabbing pain, which caused a loud "OUCH!" from me, which made me laugh harder, which confused Russell, which made me laugh EVEN harder! It was definitely funny, but I was glad when I finally quit laughing and hurting haha. So here are my pics for this week. The first two are what the baby is looking like over the past couple of weeks (you can tell it's getting cramped in there):
Week 18:
Week 19:
And here are my latest belly pics. Starting to really grow now!
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