Take our baby name poll!

Even though we have 99% decided upon a name, we want to see what everyone else thinks ;-) (P finally let me give a hint as to the name...up until now, he has wanted it to be a secret :-) And let us know if you have any boy name favorites that aren't on the poll.

Week 21: 'Look Mommy, I'm dreaming!'

Your beautiful little miracle-gro baby will be putting on a full ounce and a half this week (up to 16.5 oz), and is a hiccupping fool! Yep, hiccups are those little jerky motions you may feel—it's his little lungs practicing the important task of breathing! ( Ahh, so he's not breakdancing in there. We thought our little guy just had really good rhythm...)

For now, we’re pleased to report the addition of rapid eye movement (REM) a key component to any baby’s healthy sleep schedule. And in the dermatology department: their thin soft skin is very red, fairly translucent, and a bit wrinkled. Not to worry, it’s not a premature aging disease. It's just their clever little body setting them up with extra space that will smooth out once your little one starts packing on the baby-fat. That won’t be for a few more weeks, though. So for the time being, your munchkin is still a little lean mean growing machine!

Your baby will be getting much larger during the second half of your pregnancy. Your growing baby is currently about the size of a large banana.

During the next 10 weeks, you will gain about half of the total gain for your entire pregnancy. You might notice an increase in appetite because you need 500 more calories a day to support your charged up metabolism. ( so that's why I've been ravenous lately! Yay - just another excuse to bring on the food :-)

Fun facts

Here are some fun 'birth day' facts...if Lil' Bean decides to make his arrival near his approximate due date (e.g. before October :-)

~ Your baby's birthstone will be Sapphire (Clear Thinking)
~ Your baby's Flower is Aster or Morning_Glory (Brown, Deep Blue)
~ Your baby will be born in the Chinese Year of The Pig
~ Your baby's Astrological Sign will be Libra
~ This time next year your baby will be 33 Weeks Old!
~ Your baby will start kindergarten in 2013, be old enough to drive a car in 2023, finish high school in 2026, and will graduate from college with the class of 2030, give or take a year. Can you imagine?

Lil' Bean's first book

This past weekend, our little one experienced his first book being read to him - at least, his first in the womb. Daddy read Dr. Seuss' ABC book (Dr. Seuss is P's favorite children's series) and we could tell Bean liked it by the taps (or maybe he just likes Daddy's deep voice ;-) And if Bean is anything like Mom, he will have accumulated and read a bjillion books in his lifetime...so we are just starting him off early :-) And hopefully after we move to a bigger house, we can build him a mini library in the nursery, heh.

We have movement people ;-)

Lil' Bean has been even more active lately (or maybe I'm just feeling it more ;-) and from what I hear, the little taps, thumps, and kicks will be even more prominent and frequent in the weeks to come. We think he's practicing his early hockey/baseball/football skills (or at least it feels like he might be shooting a puck at my uterus ;-)

And...Daddy (or "P" Papa-to-be as Aunt K calls him now) finally felt him kick (or maybe it was a punch?) - he was very excited. We are so easily entertained these days...probably not unlike millions of parents everywhere :-)

The 50-Yard Line

This week's update on our little one...

Week 20

This week you’ve got about 10.5 inches and approximately 10.5 oz of solid baby-miracle-goodness! Their little delicates bones continue to ossify and toughen while their itsy bitsy finger and toe pads are finishing up. Your little monkey now has teeth buds, although they’re hidden beneath the gum line. And finally! Their limbs have reached their relative proportions—no more alien baby! Their cute pink lips are more defined, and might be helping out in a bit of prenatal thumb-sucking. If you have a little boy, then their tiny testes are descending, though they have not yet passed the abdominal wall. What’s more, eyelashes and eyebrows are also visible. At this point, your little one really looks like a miniature baby—and we do mean miniature as your little swimmer currently weighs a mere eighth of their final birth weight. With half the pregnancy behind you, the most significant gains are yet to come!

And, not that we need to tell you, but your baby may sometimes seem like a kick-boxer in training with no appreciation for your exhausted-pregnant-momma sleep needs.

Week 19 - Almost halfway!!

The weeks are flying by, sometimes too quickly and sometimes not quickly enough (we can't wait to meet you Lil' Bean!!). Although I have been feeling the flutters (turning into taps and light kicks) since midway through the 14th week, P, to his great disappointment, has not been able to feel them. It is sweet how much he wants to feel his little man, but all of the veterans say it will take a few weeks ;-)

We also received the results of the AFP screen today - and the levels were completely normal...another sigh of relief for us.

Here's this week's summary of where Lil' Bean's at:

Week 19
Your baby is now approximately 10 inches long! How did so much growth occur in so little time? It's actually just a question of measuring the legs, which at the 19th week most doctors start to do (instead of the crown-to-rump measurements we've used previously). His arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of his body now. His kidneys continue to make urine, and the hair on his scalp is sprouting. This is a crucial time for sensory development: Your baby's brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. This week your lil’ fetus will start on an appetizing diet of amniotic fluid which they are now capable of swallowing, digesting, and passing the fluid as far as their tiny “large” intestines.

Happy Birthday P!

Our awesome daddy-to-be celebrates a birthday today! Lil' Bean sends his love and can't wait to meet his daddy (or at least, that person with the really deep "Canadian" voice who talks to him all the time ;-) P has been absolutely amazing since the day I met him almost 10 years ago, and even more so (if that is possible ) these last few months. I am blessed to have such a wonderful husband who is so patient, loving, caring, empathetic, and truly my best friend...I LOVE YOU!! Thank you for making each day just a bit better than the last, I couldn't have asked for a better husband! I am so looking forward to spending the rest of our many, many years together...