7 Weeks!!

A quote from Pregnant Chicken:

 "Hooray, your baby has paddles and a tail! No, that’s a good thing because the paddles become arms and legs and the tail becomes a tailbone. Your baby’s skeletal structure almost is  fully formed and made up of cartilage – like a shark. So you’re carrying a bad-ass shark baby right now"

 As of yesterday, the babe and I are 7 weeks along!

Size/Info: The babe is the size of a blueberry and measures anywhere from 0.25"-0.5". Our little nugget is growing about 100 cells a minute and has a really huge head. Cartilage is starting to form which will develop and harden into bones. Other major systems are starting to develop like kidneys and the heart.

What is new this week? We had our first official ultrasound with my OB on Tuesday. I was feeling VERY nervous (think body shakes) but when we got there, Dr. B just got right to it and said, "There's the heartbeat. Everything looks perfect!" What a relief! I was honestly in such shock that I am not even sure what I said. I thought for sure the tears would come but I just sat there in disbelief, smiling. Jason was able to run (literally) over from the hospital to be there for the appointment and we just hugged and kissed and smiled all goofy at each other.

The arrow is pointing at the babe and the bulge to the left is the yolk sac.

This shows the fetal heart-rate. You could see the flicker on the screen. So amazing.

Symptoms: Well, the symptoms have increased and for that I am grateful. It will sound crazy that I am happy about them once I describe to you what it feels like but the symptoms reassure me that everything is just cooking along in there. It basically feels like I  have a hangover, every.single.day. I wake up and am dizzy and starving but feel like I might vomit and sometimes there is indigestion right off the bat. Nothing sounds good to eat but I know I need to eat so I start with toast and jam. This is followed by a gag-fest while brushing my teeth. Then I slowly try to drink my smoothie but it looks so gross and the consistency is off so I usually can't finish it. This is followed by feeling queasy all morning and then being ravenous for lunch. Lunch usually goes down ok but then the nausea is back with more indigestion. I snack on saltines throughout the day and those seem to settle my stomach. By the time I get home from work, I am exhausted and starving, again. I can't eat and then take a nap because I'll get the worst indigestion ever - so I have to decide. Usually, I have a bowl of cereal and veg out on the couch (which is like napping with your eyes open). Jason tries to figure out what sounds good to me for dinner while I continue to sit on the couch - incapable of getting up and useless if I do. Dinner usually hits the spot but then at around 8pm, I need to get in bed. It's like Groundhogs Day but with a pregnancy "hangover". I am not complaining, really. I welcome all the symptoms.

Food aversions: There are so many... These are just a few: shrimp (which I normally LOVE), tomato based soups or sauces (but ketchup is ok), eggs, anything with a weird consistency and chocolate (what!!??!?!???!!)

Food cravings: PB&J, toast, cereal, saltines, french-fries and cheese burgers. So basically, anything in a bland carb form. Also, beef seems to really satisfy me.

Blump/Bump: My uterus is still sitting below the pelvic bone so there is no bump yet BUT there is bloat, better know in the pregnancy world as a blump. It is really bad in the evenings and I can't/don't want to suck it in so it looks kind of like a bump but really it is just a lot of gas. And boy does it smell!