Your pregnancy: 14 weeks

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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.

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.

See what your baby looks like this week.

Your pregnancy: 13 weeks

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How your baby's growing:

Fingerprints have formed on your baby's tiny fingertips, her veins and organs are clearly visible through her still-thin skin, and her body is starting to catch up with her head — which makes up just a third of her body size now. If you're having a girl, she now has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries. Your baby is almost 3 inches long (the size of a medium shrimp) and weighs nearly an ounce.

See what your baby looks like this week.

Heartbeat!

Today was our appointment to hear the babies heartbeat. It wasn't as big a deal as I thought it would be or that some people make it out to be. The doctor used her little magic gadget thing, squished it onto my belly moved it around a bit and then said "That's it, can you hear it". We could which was cool. She let us listen for a little bit and showed us the heartbeat range was from 157-169. She seemed satisfied so she moved on to poking and prodding me.

So that was it. I think that part of the let down today was that we have already seen the baby in an ultrasound and saw it's heart beating then. Now we just have to wait for the 20-28 week ultrasound when we get features and heartbeats and possibly find out if it's a boy or a girl!?



***Side note - thank you Karen and Neil for the presents that arrived today!***

Your pregnancy: 12 weeks

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

Cord Blood....say what?

So I was doing some reading, trying to figure out what exactly the deal is with this cord blood saving stuff. This is what I have learned: 

Cord blood stem cells are currently used in the treatment of several life-threatening diseases, and play an important role in the treatment of blood and immune system related genetic diseases, cancers, and blood disorders.Recent studies have shown that cord blood has unique advantages over traditional bone marrow transplantation, particularly in children, and can be life-saving in rare cases where a suitable bone-marrow donor cannot be found. Approximately 50% of patients requiring a bone marrow transplant will not find a suitable donor within a critical period. In certain instances there may be some medical issues around using one's own cord blood cells, as well as availability of cells, which will require treatments done using cells from another donor, with the vast majority being unrelated donors. However, studies have shown that cord blood stem cells can also be used for siblings and other members of your family who have a matching tissue type. Siblings have up to a 75% chance of compatibility, and the cord blood may even be a match for parents (50%) and grandparents.

Your pregnancy: 11 weeks

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How your baby's growing:

Your baby, just over 1 1/2 inches long and about the size of a fig, is now almost fully formed. Her hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under her gums, and some of her bones are beginning to harden.

She's already busy kicking and stretching, and her tiny movements are so effortless they look like water ballet. These movements will become more frequent as her body grows and becomes more developed and functional. You won't feel your baby's acrobatics for another month or two — nor will you notice the hiccupping that may be happening now that her diaphragm is forming.

See what your baby looks like this week.

So....sometime in June!

We had our first appointment at All About Women today. Family history etc etc. She calculated my due date as June 8th when she first starting asking questions. Then we discussed the ultrasound and she went with that due date June 29th.

But really that is almost a months difference! So yeah, we will have Baby Gines sometime in June....that is my prediction!

They Sound Cool...BUT!

Ok so 3-D Ultrasounds may sound cool, but really...I MEAN REALLY PEOPLE...they are creepy! They look like someone took a can of that spray foam insulation and made a sculpture of the baby. Neat concept yes I agree, but very creepy in practice. I think we will be sticking to the regular 2D :-)

See Sample:

You know your going to be a dad when...

...you open your inbox and you have an email entitled: "If she gets sick during pregnancy" and it has the following links:

Getting sick is never fun, but during pregnancy it's especially hard 
What is and isn't safe when she's sick

How to handle colds while she's pregnant
Are herbal teas okay during pregnancy?
Should she get a flu shot?

And on a side note, I think Erin registered for her very own Babys'R'Us, who knew a baby can use more things that a grown adult uses in a week!

More to come....

Your pregnancy: 10 weeks

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How your baby's growing:

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.

He's swallowing fluid and kicking up a storm. Vital organs — including his kidneys, intestines, brain, and liver (now making red blood cells in place of the disappearing yolk sac) — are in place and starting to function, though they'll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy.

If you could take a peek inside your womb, you'd spot minute details, like tiny nails forming on fingers and toes (no more webbing) and peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin.

In other developments: Your baby's limbs can bend now. His hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over his heart, and his feet may be long enough to meet in front of his body. The outline of his spine is clearly visible through translucent skin, and spinal nerves are beginning to stretch out from his spinal cord. Your baby's forehead temporarily bulges with his developing brain and sits very high on his head, which measures half the length of his body. From crown to rump, he's about 1 1/4 inches long. In the coming weeks, your baby will again double in size — to nearly 3 inches.