11 weeks

No scurvy for our baby! Baby G is now the size of a lime!Your baby, just over 1 1/2 inches long and 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.

Check out this 3-D ultrasound image of what baby looks like during this week!

What's been happening this week? I've started feeling a bit better, but still ridiculously tired. Now that we can hear the heartbeat on the outside with the doppler I'm really breathing a sigh of relief, no more need to subject baby to ultrasounds to curb momma's worries, a quick check with the doppler will do just fine. We got some more presents this week, the first from Grandma and Grandpa (that's the Jensens) was more BumGenius!!!! Now we're 2/3 of the way to all the diapers we should need until 35 pounds.

Plus, we got our first gift from a patient! This little lovey is just adorable and oh so soft.

I've also been updating the registry with more must haves. I find it's much easier to research one topic a week and then add those products. That way I'm sure that we're picking the best rated most useful things out there. I started at Babies R Us and then added Target because there were several things that weren't available at BRU. Now, I'm considering just doing one big registry at Amazon.com because you can add items from multiple online sources, things like BumGenius diapers and etsy products! Speaking of etsy, I found a brilliant little store that sells stick-on month labels for onsies. here's the link to the store: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6653837 and here's the labels I've been eyeing http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29812689. It will allow us to easily track baby's pictures, plus I've got some fun present ideas up my sleeve with similar stickers.

Can't forget the belly shots:

Gina and Grace visit

Last weekend Gina and Grace flew down solo from Washington. We got them home to Modesto and ate, then headed to Boomers, a great place that has mini golf, go carts, laser tag and arcade games. All the ladies about to cool off at the bumper boats
Wait, I'm not suppose to go on this one, oh well...I'm going anyway. So defiant!

And apparently they didn't know Gina was coming

definitely a few degrees cooler in the water

We finished up, grabbed a drink and got in a round of mini golf. I attempted to keep score but it became apparent that nobody was doing that well and several of us were, ahem, cheating so we ditched that and just had fun. I will note that Dominic got THREE holes in one. He must have played here before.

We were sweating after being out in the heat again, it was around 95 that day so we headed back inside for a little game playing...Don't they look like they're concentrating SUPER hard.

This one started off pretty easy and they were laughing and joking and then it got tough, really tough.

Dominic had quite the time controlling that wave runner.

Laser tag was inside so we moved on to that, several games later and the grown ups were DYING, the girls did another round or two by themselves...I KILLED at this one...must have been the early practice, thanks dad.

Can you see the sweat on his brow?

Traded in all those tickets and got these glasses. Not sure about the size, they seem a little off?

We made lasagna so we didn't have to cook much and boy was it delish

A little caprese salad with cherry tomatoes from the garden completes the meal nicely

Got some good sleep and headed to San Francisco the next day.

Dominic didn't really fit on the boat too well.

Alcatrez...checking out the morgue, did they forget anyone in there girls?

The HOLE..quick shut the door, I'm outta here!

The view looking back at the city, notice the clouds, they burned off by mid-afternoon

Just a wee bit windy

the cap the inmates had to wear

Dominic just loved this sign, apparently it never occurred to him that someone would do this...anything to make a quick buck

10 weeks

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. Big news this week includes Hearing the heartbeat for the first time on Monday Aug 24...here's the video for you



getting back my prenatal labs, which were all normal, and realizing that I've lost about 7 pounds since I got pregnant. I was and still occassionally am a bit nauseous. Fortunately I haven't actually gotten sick yet, but my diet has shrunk pretty dramatically and I've been struggling to increase my calorie intake to get back to even. Lets get to the fun part Belly shots, starting with today, the first day of week 10:

Wish List

As I'm starting to get things organized for baby I've amassed a list of things we need to have before this little one arrives.

#1 a new digital camera. Our point and shoot is ok but is starting to get outdated at only 6 megapixals. I'd really like to get something that allows for new lenses like this:

the Canon - EOS Digital Rebel XSi has fantastic reviews and is used by MANY of the blog authors that have phenominal pictures. Certainly it would be handy to be able to capture the details of our little one's life ahead.

#2 of course there is NO POINT in having such a great camera and not being able to edit your images. I would go with Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 / Adobe Premiere Elements 7 for that purpose. Sure it would be nice to have Photoshop C4, but come on $1000 is a little unrealistic.

3. I think we should upgrade our video recorder to HD with the Flip Video - UltraHD Camcorder. We have the basic flip now and I certainly think a full video recorder with 1080p would be nice but I'm CERTAIN we would reach for the lightweight and easy to operate flip 99% of the time anyway.

Quick trip to Atlanta, Ladies weekend 2009

Every year Lisa, Abigail and I get together and with Abigail leaving for Botswana in October we did it in Aug so we could see her before she left. We had a quick weekend and managed to cram in tons of gossiping and catching up along with a lovely float down the Chattahoochie river (no pictures unfortunately, couldn't chance the camera with the water) and even some shopping. The only shots I did get I think are certainly appropriate:

Best news of the whole trip? The lovely Lisa (last picture above) got ENGAGED on the day she returned home. I cannot even put into words how happy I am for her and Trey, she is going to be such a gorgeous bride.

9 weeks

Our little embryo has now officially graduated to fetus-hood

Your new resident is nearly an inch long — about the size of a grape — and weighs just a fraction of an ounce. She's starting to look more and more human. Her essential body parts are accounted for, though they'll go through plenty of fine-tuning in the coming months. Other changes abound: Your baby's heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form — as do her tiny teeth. The embryonic "tail" is completely gone. Your baby's organs, muscles, and nerves are kicking into gear. The external sex organs are there but won't be distinguishable as male or female for another few weeks. Her eyes are fully formed, but her eyelids are fused shut and won't open until 27 weeks. She has tiny earlobes, and her mouth, nose, and nostrils are more distinct. The placenta is developed enough now to take over most of the critical job of producing hormones. Now that your baby's basic physiology is in place, she's poised for rapid weight gain

I caved and did another ultrasound because I was worried that I was feeling quite a bit better...baby looks fantastic! with a heart rate of 178 bpm

Here are the belly shots from 9wks exactly

The best news of the week? I started buying a few things baby needs, swaddling blankets and diapers. These blankets are made of muslin and are double thickness for the winter (that's still rather thin and I LOVE that because baby won't get too hot)

BUM GENIUS! these things are fantastic (at least I think they are) They are reusuable cloth diapers with inserts but go on just like disposables. they came with 2 inserts (one newborn and one regular) that can be doubled up at night or used individually. They work from 8-35 pounds. aren't the colors just so much better than disposable? The best part? This will save us a TON of money over the course of our children. SO excited about them if you couldn't tell.

Means wedding 7/25/09