Fifty-eight

12 weeks 0 days

Another week down. There's nothing new going on. Still nauseated. Still bloated. Still covered in zits. Only a little over a week until the second trimester starts. I'm trying to stay as calm as I can, but it's hard.

 

I did two pictures this week. The one on the left is me relaxed. The one on the right is sucking in as far as I could. There's obviously a baby/displaced organ bump there, but it's covered in a lot of bloat. I swear that before bed, I get so bloated that I can't see my feet. It's ridiculous. I am going to get huuuuuge.

Here's the weekly bean update:

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.


I have another ultrasound this week. This one is the nuchal translucency screening. (They measure the amount of fluid on the back of the baby's neck and do some blood tests to assess the risk of down syndrome and a couple of other disorders.) Honestly, the results don't matter to us (I would never terminate for medical reasons, unless I was at risk), and we're only doing it to see our baby so we don't have to wait until 16 weeks for another ultrasound.

I have been reading a forum of other people due in February, and a ton of them are claiming to find out the sex of their babies at this ultrasound. It makes me laugh and shake my head, because 98% of them are being told they're having boys. (It's because both boy and girl babies have a nub at this point. There's an "angle of the dangle" theory that says that boy nubs are pointed in a certain direction and girl nubs are pointed in another.) I'll be interested to see their doctors, who are "certain" of the sex at this ultrasound, change their tunes in a few weeks. I'll be shocked if they're all actually boys, though. I am glad my doctor doesn't subscribe to this theory because I would rather find out the sex when it's 100% obvious. (Liam was obviously a boy at 16 weeks (Madelyn was shy and wouldn't fully show off for the camera, haha), so I'm hoping we'll find out then this time, too.)

Anyway, I will see you after my appointment on Wednesday.