That's Mrs. Byerline to you!

That's right folks, I'm married now. Rob and I married yesterday afternoon in a nearby county clerk's office with his mom, Kathi (my new sister-in-law) and Brett (her hubby) as witness. I'm surprised that when it came right down to the ceremony I wasn't nervous, not like I thought I would be considering this being the only marriage under my belt. I didn't cry - which also surprised me simply because being pregnant alone I cry at everything. I mean - this is the girl who bawled her heart out while watching Wall-E by herself one night.
Anyway, I think it was good that I didn't cry, I don't consider myself a pretty cryer and Brett unforetunately got the ceremony recorded on his camera. So maybe I look half-way decent and not so fat as I feel like I look. I'm sure Brett's e-mailed the pictures to Rob (or will) and once I get to see them I may post a few of them on here so people can see.
Also, I have pictures of my growing pooch and I will try to post at least one of those, though don't anticipate too many of them simply because I'm not confident in my prego body image to show off my expanding waistline too much.
As for Little One herself (well, I say "her" but we still don't know), she's certainly growing. My clothes seem to be getting a little tighter each week and my pregnancy book says I should gain about a pound a week. I am now fourteen weeks and three days along and Little One is going to go through the following major changes this week:
- First, now that the physical body-building is pretty much done with, Little One is beginning a period of rapid brain growth.
- The baby develops fingerprints. And I didn't know this, but fingerprints are created by the baby swimming and bumbling around in the womb and waving their little hands. That's why everyone has a unique print. Neat huh??
- Little One is practicing voluntary muscle movements.
- Little One is also developing Meconium in her intestines, this is the first icky baby poop the baby has after it's birth.
- The baby has also tripled in size since three weeks ago. She/he now weighs approxiamtely 1-1.25 ounces and measures about 4 inches long.

I'm In My Second Trimester

How Mommy Feels:

• Tired
• Fat (what's new)
• Hungry

Morning Sickness: no

Cravings: Fruity Pebbles cereal

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Well I think now's the time I can say that I'm "Officially" in my 2nd Trimester, I'm thirteen weeks and one day along - and I've been uber-aware of the baby in my belly all weekend. I guess after seeing such crazy activity at the last ultrasound has me really thinking about the baby - whether it's a boy or girl, if he/she will have Rob's dark hair or my baby blonde locks, or if it'll have Rob's brown eyes or my hazel ones . . . I'm just so excited about everything about this baby. I can't imagine having to wait at least five more months to see the baby. And I've made no secret that I'm certainly not the most patient person in the world.

But I'm happy to report that in the last week there's been tons of changes and baby has grown. Here are the changes that have happened:

- The placenta took over production of horomones.

- The baby practices reflexes and digestive tract movements.

- The baby can swallow and practices on amniotic fluid (eww!)

- Nail beds for toes and fingers develope.

- Chin and nose become more defined and the eye lids seal shut to protect them.

- Finally, the baby doubled in size to be at 1/2 an ounce and measure at 2.5 inches long.

Changes that will happen this week are the following. Basically, it's more growing, growing, growing:

- Baby can make a fist and even suck his or her thumb.

- Bones and skull are solidifying and soon itsy-bitsy ribs may appear.

- Baby's intestines are in his or her belly instead of poking out into the umbilical cord.

- Baby's tooth sockets are all loaded and ready to pop out baby teeth six or seven months after baby is born.

- Vocal cords and larynx are completed now. But baby can't make any sound yet, however, because sound waves travel through air and baby is submerged in fluid.

- The pancreas of the baby begins secreting insulin.

- Baby now weighs about 20 grams (or 1 ounce) and is 3.25 inches long, or about the size of a Nutter Butter. Cool, huh?

Yeah, so that's what's going on with baby.

OH! And I almost forgot - I had a dream the other night that Rob and I had a baby BOY. However, I really feel that this is a girl dispite the dream. But when I have dreamt about the baby and remembered the sex, both times it has been a boy and both times the baby was more like a toddler and not a newborn. Weird....

I am Fat After All - WAH!!!!!!!!!!

How Mommy Feels:

• Fat
• Bloated
• Happy!
• Thirsty

Cravings: fried foods

Morning sickness: no - yay!

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The first routine item you do at the OB is you get weighed every visit. Well, on this visit I found out I've gained 5 pounds.

5 pounds!!!

I should have only gained about 2 pounds - if any weight at all. The baby and the placenta don't even weigh a pound. But the nurse and doctor weren't overly concerned and Donna (the right hand gal, if you remember) just waved it off and said "This is generally the worst time to get pregnant because of the holidays and it's Winter. I wouldn't worry if I were you, just blame the season."
So I'm glad that the staff doesn't seem to think it too out of the norm - but I do. I fear I'm going to become one FAT momma. Ewww....
Anyway, on to more wonderful news. First, I got to see the baby again today. And boy was he/she just hopping and dancing around! The little bit couldn't sit still for one moment. Needless to say all that movement made it sadly impossible to get a decent picture of the tyke. So no physical picture to post today. (sad!) I'm wondering if all that hustle and bustle in the womb will be present in the coming months and after delivery, but we'll see. And it was so awesome to see this new U/S because I could see the little legs and arms and I could see the cute little profile. And when the baby turned towards us - or facing my belly button - I could see the skull of the baby and the eye and nose sockets... it's was so neat and wonderful and indiscribably joyful. I felt exhilerated after the exam and completely excited for the coming months.
Dr. Hansen said my baby looks nice and healthy and the heart was strong, and my blood pressure was good, and my nice pee sample was free of UTI traces.... yeah, I know you all wanted to know that! In short, this was a good visit - minus the weight gain.
As for my next visit, I will be waiting out five and a half weeks until my next appointment. Dr. Hansen said I could either come in the traditional four weeks, or I could come in five and get to find out the sex of the baby.
I was sold (as Rob put it) to waiting the additional week so that I can find out the sex of the baby. And it'll be just before Christmas too, which is what I wanted. The only thing I've truly wanted for Christmas was to know if I was having a boy or girl - and now I'll know. My only dilemma now is to be patient (or maybe put on the persona of patience) and wait out the five weeks until my next appointment. Which will be on Tuesday December 23rd. I can't wait!

12 weeks and 3 days -- and counting

How Mommy Feels:

• Fat


• Sleepy

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All in all, my symptoms aren't so bad today. I felt a little nausea this morning but after breakfast it went away. Which is really a funny thing because if I feel sick in the morning, I'll eat breakfast and one day I'll be fine and the nausea will pass or I'll completely lose my accounts via a trash can. It's downright aggrivating that every day is a guessing game of will I or will I not get sick today?

The good thing is I think it might be passing. I stress the work "think" because again - I just never know. But the pregnancy books say things may usually die down by the 12th week and that gives me hope that it will stop.

My 12th week exam is tomorrow. I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. Excited for the normal reasons of wanting to see the baby again in another U/S and nervous because I'm afraid I've gained tons of weight since my last appointment a month ago. I feel like I have because I've had to think about buying maternity clothes already. And I've had to purchase the BellaBand (which I will swear by) to keep my pre-pregnancy pants on my waist where they belong and not around my ankles. (I'll explain that neat thing further down) Anyway, it's not so much that I feel constantly pregnant as much as I swing between feeling pregnant and feeling downright F-A-T. Since my dress slacks don't button or zip makes me feel like I must have gained 10 pounds, so we'll see tomorrow.

As for the BellaBand, this is what it looks like:

You can wear it folded over your pants or you can wear it completely over your belly and pants. Essentially, this allows prego ladies to wear their pre-pregnancy pants unbuttoned underneath the band and the band holds them up. Or, you can wear your too-big pregnancy pants and the band will still hold them up. So this band essentially extends the wearability (I've made that a word if it wasn't one before) of your clothes. It's also a money-saver. $20 bucks for this VS. buying a prego wardrobe now that would only last me a few months. I'll still end up having to buy a few maternity items, but not as much now that I've got this band. So when any of you get pregnant invest in a few of these babies!

Anyway, I'll have another update tomorrow after my exam. And I will (hopefully) have pictures to post of baby.

11w1d - the baby is officially a fetus!

How Mommy Feels:

• Bloated
• Fat
• Nauseated

Morning sickness: yes - mild :(

Cravings: water

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So I enjoyed a nice weekend while the baby went into it's 11th week. And yesterday I was a complete bum. The only thing I did besides sit on my butt and watch pointless TV was to get up and take a shower. Which is a little embarassing to admit but I just didn't feel up to anything. And to top it off I took two naps. One around 10:30 in the morning and another one at 8PM last night - but only for about 20 minutes. And that was so I could have enough energy to watch this show called "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" and it aired on TLC about 9 PM.

And the show is about just that - women who carried babies to term or close to term and never knew they were pregnant until they were in the emergency room with a doc or nurse telling them they are experiencing labor. It really boggled my mind that there are women out there who were either A) knowingly oblivious and ignoring the signs their body gave them that they were pregnant. Or B) didn't experience one iota of common pregnancy symptoms to make them believe they may be pregnant. Two of the four women in the show thought they were going through the stages of menopause at a young age - which could be believeable, I guess. And the other two were simply oblivious to the signs their body gave them that they were prego. I certainly felt a difference within days of becoming pregnant. I just assumed that all women would generally be the same and would know their body.

Anyway, Rob was pretty much a bum right along with me. We enjoyed the quiet time and a day to have no obligations to worry about. It was nice, really.

And as for being in my eleventh week, here are the changes the baby is going through:

- Testes or ovaries are completely formed now

- The fingernail and toenail beds are beginning to form.

- The baby weighs about a third of an ounce (or 2 packets of sugar) and is 2 inches long.

- The baby's iris's begin to develop.

- The baby has a big "pumpkin head" basically. The size of the baby's head is nearly half the size of the body. But in the next 9 weeks the baby will grow thirty times in weight and triple in length to compensate for the size of the head. (Can we say, "Amazing"?)

So that's my update for this week. If anything remotely note-worthy happens I'll be sure to write it in. And my second OB appointment is next Thursday so I'll definitely have some more news on baby and Dr. Hansen by then.