Week 17/ 18 updates and how our visit with the avocado went...

How your baby's growing: - WEEK 17

Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.

How your baby's growing: Week 18

Head to rump, your baby is about 5 1/2 inches long, and he weighs almost 7 ounces (about the size of a bell pepper). He's busy flexing his arms and legs — movements that you'll start noticing more and more in the weeks ahead. His blood vessels are visible through his thin skin, and his ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from his head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around his nerves, a process that will continue for a year after he's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If you're having a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, but he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.

So, last week during the avocado stage, we got to hang with Electra and the avocado. Before we got together though, they went to the Grand Canyon which was pretty great for Electra and her family and pretty funny to think that our baby has been there before we have. We could have gone, but just didn't make it happen.....maybe this summer. Anyway, after their visit, they came to spend a few days with us and we had fun relaxing in the warm weather and enjoying each others company. 

Ms. Electra was showing which was fun to see and I had a hard time not invading her space too much and touching the baby bump! She looked great and healthy and still had no complaints so that was good. She also let us know that she felt the baby moving now and that is just too awesome  Her whole family, our whole family, is so amazingly great about this whole process and everyone is doing their best to take care of her and baby. It melts my heart really. We took a baby bump picture in front of a beautiful flower bush at the zoo which I will add later. 

Now we are in week 17 and yesterday, we heard the heart beat again. As always, I was holding my breath, thinking the worst but of course, it was there, nice and strong! It was beating about 155 beats a minute this time and the measurements were all "looking great". He or she is growing quite nicely! Oh and by the way, I will be finding out, but because Dan wants to be surprised, I can't tell anyone...... so, until the birth, I have come up with the name "Ginger". This is because both the donor and Dan have Irish blood and I am thinking we will have a little red head pop out! ;)

So, now that the ginger is 17 weeks, they are beginning to listen to sounds around them. Remember the website I was telling you about before that Electra set up? Well, it is really great! We can upload anything to the site and she can download it and put the sounds on an MP3 player for baby to hear. How cool is that?!? Anyway, I got really excited about it all and sang a couple songs, read a few books and added music that could be soothing for the baby yesterday. I hope to continue adding stuff each week. I tried just talking to the baby but it made me want to cry so that was hard. 

It is still so odd and while I am starting to get excited, I am not sure I am as excited as I should be. I am still living my normal life NOT pregnant but in reality, a baby is coming. (Since I am doing the breast feeding protocol, I am acting pregnant.) I am not sure how to explain it and I know that in the end, none of my feeling now will matter because I will be so thrilled when that little ginger is finally in my arms!

As someone wise recently said to me, this is God's plan, he is orchestrating this whole thing and it is really out of our hands now. As long as we trust and believe in him, everything will be alright in the end. :)

From an apple to an avocado....

Congratulations, you are 15 weeks, 1 days, pregnant!


This is the message I get from Whattoexpect.com each week. :)

And below is another one from BabyCenter.com. :)

How your baby's growing: Week 15

Your growing baby now measures about 4 inches long, crown to rump, and weighs in at about 2 1/2 ounces (about the size of an apple). She's busy moving amniotic fluid through her nose and upper respiratory tract, which helps the primitive air sacs in her lungs begin to develop. Her legs are growing longer than her arms now, and she can move all of her joints and limbs. Although her eyelids are still fused shut, she can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, for instance, she's likely to move away from the beam. There's not much for your baby to taste at this point, but she is forming taste buds.

So this week I am dreaming of a little apple baby, and next week, an avocado! How fun! I have started to make sure I have the type of fruit around each week for visualization purposes. 

How your baby's growing: Week 16

Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.

It is fun to read each week how our little one is progressing. A couple of weeks ago, we were able to hear the heart beat for the first time and it was amazing! I had instant tears and goose bumps! Dan was able to be there too which was great. Afterward we were both in awe, realizing that this is real..... really real! 

Our surrogate..... who from now on we will call "Electra" is amazing by the way, she is a champion, she hasn't had any sickness (that she has mentioned to us anyway), she has researched things I would never have thought of such as when the baby can hear and taste and has come up with ways for us to talk to baby once it is able to hear us so that he or she will know us when they arrive! She is willing to eat like I eat so that when I am breast feeding (yes I am going to do that and I will talk about that in a bit), the baby already knows the tastes! She is coming for a visit soon and we will visit her shortly there after so we will end up "seeing" our little one three months in a row! Yes, Ms. Electra rocks and we love her. ;)

On the 20th of March, we will hear the heartbeat again. The last one was around 160 beats a minute. Now, after some research, it appears that the heart rate correlates with gender. However, after doing some more research, that doesn't seem to mean anything because everyone I have talked to has had the opposite gender of what the heartbeat seemed to suggest. So, we shall see...maybe.

When we visit in April, we can learn the babies gender if we want to. I want to know but hubby wants it to be a surprise. So, we will see how that goes. We will also get another photo at that time which I am super excited about, the little one will be 21 weeks then! 

Back to the breast feeding. I went in for a consult with our doctor to see what I needed to do to prepare for breast feeding and learned that I will be on birth control pills continuously (sort of funny if you think about it, I mean, it's pretty obvious that I am in no danger of getting pregnant!) and I will also be taking another pill 4 times a day to induce lactation. Then I get to start pumping every three hours beginning 6 weeks before the baby is due (sorry for my roommates at grad school!). Anyway, I figured that I would try it and if it doesn't work out, at least I tried and won't regret not trying it later.

I think that is all the updates for now. Sorry it has taken so long to post an update. Thank you to everyone who has asked about our journey! Keep those prayers coming as they seem to be working so far!

Until next time...... :)