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...... :)