9 Weeks, 2 Days

It's been a busy weekend. To start out, here's an update of the goings on during Week 9.

The Baby
The baby is now officially a fetus! Crown-to-rump length is .9 to 1.2 inches. This is close to the size of a medium green olive. The baby's arms and legs are longer. Hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over the heart area. The head is more erect and the neck is more devleoped. Eyelids almost cover the eyes. The baby nows moves its body and limbs.

My Body
Each week your uterus grows larger with the baby growing inside it. You may begin to see your waistline growing thicker by this time. A pelvic exam will detect a uterus a little bigger than a grapefruit. Mood swings are common now. Complexion changes are common. Either extra smooth skin or acne eruptions are both common. As the uterus grows you may also feel a dull aching and cramping.

Personnally, I like hearing that my waistline could be thickening by now. I definately notice a difference. Other people looking at me wouldn't think that I'm pregnant, but I can see a new roundness to my lower abdomen. I've unofficially gained 4 pounds. What-to-Expect says to gain 3-4 pounds in your first trimester. I'm guessing I'm going to gain more than that, since I'm already at 4 pounds with almost a month to go, and I don't have any problems keeping food down. I'm not too concerned. I've really changed my eating habits and guess that I would have probably gained 2 or 3 pounds without being pregnant. Luckily I only notice weight gain in that lower ab area and it doesn't seem all soft and squishy like when you just get fat, so I'm ok with that.

On a new subject, Eric and I had a busy and fun weekend. Donna (Eric's Mom) came to visit for the first time since we moved in to the house. We went to dinner on Friday night and then rented a couple of movies. Saturday we went to Aerobics class in the morning and then spent most of the rest of the day and evening shopping. Then watched another movie. It was a good visit.

Shopping, now that was an experience. We went to lots of baby stores. We showed Donna the crib and dresser/changing table we want to get. I'm pretty sure we've made the decision. We'll probably order it in early December. It takes 10 weeks to come in. I'd like to start on the nursery in February. We also went to a couple of maternity stores and Babies-R-Us. Eric was really cool and let me a get a couple of outfits. I don't need them yet, maybe in a couple of weeks. But, his rationalization was, I'm going to need the clothes, so why not spread out the shopping rather than having to buy a ton of stuff when I don't fit in any of my normal clothes any more. I borrowed a lot of clothes from some women at work, but it's fun to have some stuff of my own too. I bought a pair of jeans (I have a borrowed pair, but they are pretty small, and I'm guessing I'll outgrow them by month 5 or so. I also got a great pair of black pants I can where to work and 2 really pretty shirts. Then I got 2 stretchy short sleeve shirts that were on clearance and 2 tank top/camisole shirts. We only spent about $125, so I thought that was pretty good. Then we really went crazy. We went to Best Buy, which is always a risky proposition. We ended up buying a new computer including a monitor and printer. The computer will be delivered in 2 weeks, and Donna bought us the printer with extra ink and photo paper as an early Christmas present. We also got a digital camera. I've been wanting a camera and with the pregnancy and baby, I can't think it's anything but a good investment. Once I figure out how to do more of this posting stuff, I'll start posting belly pictures. Well, that's probably a long enough post for now. I'll give another update when I get some more info. Thursday is the first doctor's appointment, so that will be fun. If I figure out the posting, I'll take a picture of our ultrasound picture and post it.