Pregnancy at 7 Weeks

I'm not sure why, but for some reason when I pictured becoming pregnant I pictured life as I knew it standing still, and the small being growing inside me consuming my every moment of thought and existence.

Instead, life goes on... As I know it. I still have the stress of work, bills, and everyday life, along with the additional very time consuming process of growing a baby.

It happened almost immediately. It was the only thing on my mind, the only thing I really wanted to talk about, think about, and focus on, but the unknowing minds have no idea about my... Circumstance. They may not get why I'm staring at the door as if there's a ghost in the threshold. Ticking in my mind is the internal debates: If I should try to stick it out in the crowded meeting room while my head spins from the heat and lightheadedness, or swiftly escape, and run to the bathroom before the saliva running down the sides of my mouth quickly transitions into vomit projecting the other direction.

Hours later I'm scoping out counter space in the back dark room. It's not a pillow, but it'll suffice as a spot for my head to lie for a few glorious moments of rest.

I've been very tired and very nauseous. I haven't puked yet, but I haven't felt up to blogging as much the past few days. But I'm back now... I think... I hope. Oh, and Tuesday is my first LIVE MomTV show at 10:30am EST... Let's pray I still won't be vomiting then! More on that later.

Friday I hit 7 weeks of pregnancy, and I hope every Friday to update what's going on with me according to the Baby Center email I get, and what I read in my weekly update of my iPhone ap "What to Expect." I got this idea from my friend Baby Dicky's blog, so I hope mine will be as fun to read. She's almost done (at 33 weeks!) and I can't wait to catch up!

I was too tired last Friday to write this out, so I'm catching up today!

So according to Baby Center:

How Spawnie's growing:
-Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs — although they look more like paddles.
-Technically, my baby is still considered an embryo (although it's a baby to me) and has something of a small tail, which is an extension of Spawnie's tailbone.
-Spawnie has doubled in size since last week and now measures half an inch long, or about the size of a blueberry. My iPhone ap says it's more about the size of a raspberry... Of course I'd prefer the larger fruit, but as my friends on Twitter tell me "It doesn't matter, in 6 more months it'll be the size of a watermelon and kicking my ribs."
-Eyelid folds partially covering Spawnie's peepers, which already have some color
-Tip of Spawnie's nose and tiny veins beneath parchment-thin skin are also developing.
-Both hemispheres of Spawnie's brain are growing,
-And Spawnie's liver is churning out red blood cells until bone marrow forms and takes over this role.
-My baby also has an appendix and a pancreas now!
-A loop in my baby's growing intestines is bulging into Spawnie's umbilical cord, which now has distinct blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients to and from baby's tiny body.
As far as me:
-My uterus has doubled in size in the past five weeks.
-Morning sickness should be kicking in... oh wait, it already has. I'm not throwing up, thank goodness. But I feel on the verge of puking almost constantly.
-I may need to pee more than usual... Yep! Guilty. This is because of my increasing blood volume and the extra fluid being processed through my kidneys. I NEVER use to have to go pee often and now I wake up EVERY NIGHT. It's quite annoying, and I hear it'll only get worse!
-By now, I already have about 10 percent more blood than I did before I was pregnant. And by the end of my pregnancy, I'll have 40 to 45 percent more blood running through my veins.

And I know it's silly for me to take a belly picture already but I figure it's at least a starting point, so don't laugh.

How often did you take belly pictures?

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October 30, 2009 9:46 AM

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Lil' J is a Baby Einstein: New Discovery Kits!

The first time I heard about Baby Einsteins I was a teenager and babysitting for a woman at my church. She asked me to play it if we were going to have the TV on.

I'm not sure if back then people thought these movies would make babies smarter or something, but the name sorta implies that at first.

I didn't think I'd be one of "those moms" who experiments with baby DVDs with her child but here I am!

A friend of mine gave me her baby Einstein movies since her baby is older now and Lil' J watched them for a little while on my computer screen. This was about a month ago. I put them away and didn't think much else about them until I was sent these new Baby Einstein Discovery Kits to try!

These are cool because each kit is a different "level" with different things to experience. We got Level 1 "Experience": Baby Mozart, which comes with a DVD, a CD with the tunes from the DVD and a book with some of the images from the movie. Level 2 "Explore": Which also came with a DVD, a CD and flash cards. And Level 3 "Expression": Which came with a DVD, a CD and book.

Each property of each kit coincides together so it's like a continuous lesson.The second and third lessons are more advanced for Lil' J to understand right now but she sure loves all the stuff! She likes the movies and actually gets "zoned in" to them, and now when we play the music in her room upstairs, or if I play it on my computer I can see her stop what she's doing and sorta look around like "I know that song!"

Ok, so we were watching one of the movies yesterday and I had to take a quick video of her watching it so you can see how entertained she is by it. Her little face watches the penguins run back and forth on the screen, it's cute!


You can see for a second she gets bored and looks away but just then the screen flashes and something else starts happening. It's almost like it's timed perfectly to her attention span.

What I like about these is it's not just one of those "sit your kids in front of the TV and let this teach them" kind of things. The book and cards that go along with it make it fun to take the lesson away from the TV and have a little learning time together. I like to try to do this anyway with our own books and toys but this is a fun way to make learning with her well-rounded. Oh, and I love that it uses words in English, French and Spanish, so I'm learning too!

These are new and a neat gift idea for Christmas!

Everyone who comments on this post before next Friday December 3rd will be entered to win 3 Baby Einstein Discovery kits! Blog followers get an extra entry. Random.org will choose the winner. Good luck!


*I received a free sample of Baby Einstein’s Discovery Kit to test for this review and giveaway, which is part of a sponsored program through the BabyCenter Blog Network.”