10 week update

Your pregnancy: 10 weeks

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

Though he's barely the size of a kumquat — a little over an inch or so long, crown to bottom — and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce, your baby has now completed the most critical portion of his development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature.

He's swallowing fluid and kicking up a storm. Vital organs — including his kidneys, intestines, brain, and liver (now making red blood cells in place of the disappearing yolk sac) — are in place and starting to function, though they'll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy.

If you could take a peek inside your womb, you'd spot minute details, like tiny nails forming on fingers and toes (no more webbing) and peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin.

In other developments: Your baby's limbs can bend now. His hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over his heart, and his feet may be long enough to meet in front of his body. The outline of his spine is clearly visible through translucent skin, and spinal nerves are beginning to stretch out from his spinal cord. Your baby's forehead temporarily bulges with his developing brain and sits very high on his head, which measures half the length of his body. From crown to rump, he's about 1 1/4 inches long. In the coming weeks, your baby will again double in size — to nearly 3 inches.

Life is exciting!

Exciting things about today!

1. I made it to 10 weeks pregnant! Woohoo! Little Ralph is growing full force! :) This also means we get to start calling it a fetus instead of an embryo.
2. 5 more days of school and then I have somehow managed to successfully complete my first year of teaching! Yikes!
3. Two weeks from now I will be waking up in my new house in Oregon. This also means that Brandon and I will finally get to live together again. Our 6 week separation is coming to an end. :)
4. This weekend has been full of friends and laughter, which is fantastic.
5. Sleeping in and relaxing is a wonderful thing ... and a great way to spend a Sunday morning.

I am sure there are more, but those are the big ones. Alright, time to get up and hang out with my pup! I'm leaving him again this evening to go down to Provo for dinner with Kevin and Megan, so I want to make sure he gets some time out of his kennel today. Happy Sunday!

bahahahahaha

Was recommended a new website by one of the girls on the message board I post on ... http://www.alphamom.com/pregnancy-calendar/ It's pretty stinking funny and adds some humor to the otherwise scientific and precise emails I get weekly. Here is what this website has to say about 9 weeks ... (I figure I can post two things about week nine since I had to go through week 9 twice! :)) I have italicized the parts I particularly liked.

Your Baby:

• Is about the size of a grape, or perhaps a cocktail olive, the kind that's marinated in vermouth and stuffed with blue cheese.
• (Is not marinated in vermouth or stuffed with blue cheese.)
• Has fingers and toes and eyelids and ears.
• External boy and girl-parts are present, but won't be really distinguishable for another couple weeks.

You:

• Have a uterus the size of a flipping grapefruit, lady.
• *BARF* Again. Still.
• With all the extra blood pumping through your system (about 50% more blood volume, actually), your body temperature may be a little jacked up -- if you're constantly complaining about being too hot or too cold, this is why.

You may have gained some weight already (that was me, two weeks ago), or you may have lost some weight (that's me, now). Here's how your weight gain should pan out over the next seven months or so, at least according to your average pregnancy book or website:

12 pounds: Maternal stores (fat, protein, Cheezits, etc.)
4 pounds: Increased fluid volume, aka water weight, aka blooooaaaat
2 pounds: IN YOUR BRA
2 pounds: Uterus
2 pounds: Amniotic fluid
1.5 pounds: Mmmmmplacenta
7.5 pounds: Baby! ("HA!" says the woman who birthed a 10-pounder.)

So that means the average pregnancy book thinks you should gain no more than 31 pounds total. Otherwise, you are a big fat fattie who ate her weight in Cheezits because she thought pregnancy gave her a free pass. YOU FAIL PREGNANCY!

The truth is, weight gain in pregnancy varies WILDLY from woman to woman, just like our "normal" weights and metabolisms vary. Some women can eat and eat and eat and still gain weight in line with the guide above, while others seem to balloon up no matter how healthy and reasonable their diets are. It's all about genetics (ask your mom how much she gained), your pre-pregnancy level of fitness and metabolism, and also just some random streaks of luck. Sometimes weight gain will vary for the same woman over different pregnancies.

Obviously, we all want to eat healthy and make sure our babies are getting all the right nutrients and none of us want to struggle with 20 extra pounds of "baby weight" for the next 20 years. It does feel nice to indulge in that entire pint of ice cream or box of cookies, but blah blah blah moderation.

You know what? Just do your best. It'll be enough, I promise.

Oh Yeah, THIS: The hair on my legs and other...ahem...areas is growing alarmingly fast. That is all.

Settle for more.

As hard as it is to believe, my week long vacation is already almost over. I have one more day in Medford and then I've got my long drive back to Salt Lake. It is the second to last time I will have to drive to Salt Lake from Medford! Yahoo! (Of course, I still have to drive back to Oregon from SLC two more times, but that's okay.)

I arrived in Medford around 7:00pm Wednesday after driving for 13 hours or so. I decided that since I wasn't feeling well in the morning, I would drive through Susanville, which is pretty, but also adds an extra hour and a half to my trip. Needless to say, I will not be driving that way again. :-P I'll just have to suck it up and pee on the side of the road in the desert.. lol Wednesday night I relaxed and didn't do a whole lot of anything because on Thursday I had to wake up early and drive to Portland in time for my 1:00 appoitment with the OB.

Thursday I woke up around 6:00 to feed the dog and shower and get ready. I left my parent's house just after 7:00 (right on schedule!) which should have been enough time to drop the dog off at the Trask's, drive to Portland, and pick up Brandon at his office before going to the doctor's office. However, there was a minor hiccup in my plan that left me momentarily paniced that I wouldn't make to my appt on time. I have a key to their house, but the screen door was locked and it has a different key (that I don't have). No one was home and Brad was at work without a car so I had to drive to Caytlin's work (~8-10 min away) and pick up her garage door opener before dropping off the dog. 25 minutes later than planned, I was able to drop off the dog and get on the road.

I ended up making it to Portland with enough time to get to the doctor, but not enough time to pick up Brandon. Luckily he had driven to work (after I called him nearly in tears .. lol) so he just met me at the office at 1:00.

As my previous post states, the appt went really well and we are happy with the progress of the baby so far!

Thursday evening, we spent time with Sam and Amanda before going over to Jessica's for dinner with her and Matt. We had a really great evening and it just makes me more excited to move back next month! We also went and looked at our new house, which is fantastic! We got a phone call on Friday saying that it is officially ours, so he'll be picking up the keys on June 8! Yahoo!

[Edit: Okay, so I realized that I started writing this post on the 25th ... it is now the 29th...]

Friday afternoon I drove back to Medford and Brandon arrived around 11:30 that night. He had to work and drive down, poor thing. I think he's doing it again this weekend -- and I know for sure he's doing it next weekend. Yikes! The weekend after that we'll be driving SLC - Medford - PDX, so I guess he'll kind of be doing it that weekend too. lol I can't wait to live in Portland (together!) and not have to worry about it anymore. We can drive down every other weekend or every month or every weekend, and it won't matter. Only 2 more weeks!

Saturday-Monday we spent bumming around with our families, seeing Terminator, eating, sleeping, and playing with our dog. Denali loves Oregon. :) We'll turn him into a true Oregonian yet!

Tuesday I bummed around during the day, and then spent a few hours at Brad and Mandi's (Brandon's parents) just talking and hanging out ... and playing with the dog. (Are you noticing a trend of what we do with our lives? lol) I went home with enough time to hang out with my family for a while before everyone went to bed. Put gas in my car and bought snacks for the drive home before scrounging for dinner and going to bed.

Wednesday was pretty uneventful -- I drove. A lot. Through the desert. lol That was about it. I arrived back in Salt Lake (after a week!) about 8:15. Gordon spent the night on our couch because he was in SLC for the night, so we hung out for a couple hours and you guessed it! We played with the dog.. lol Anyway, we had a good time hanging out before going to bed for some much needed rest for the both of us! I had driven all day and he had only slept a couple hours the night before because of work. Yikes! Glad I don't have his job, that's for sure!

Thursday and today I went back to work and have enjoyed being back with my kids. Either I'm less grumpy in general, or I just really needed a break from my kids. As much as I love them, sometimes it feels good to be away for a few days. We had a Read-A-Thon/Game Day/PJ day today, which was a lot of fun. Next week will be a lot of cleaning and such. I'm HOPING to be able to make a memory book, but we'll see! We don't have a lot of time left! I think, though, that I'll be able to pull it off. It's a big project, but I think the hardest part will be getting the kids' pages finished. The copying/binding shouldn't be a big deal. We'll start it Monday, so hopefully it will work out! :)

Anyway, I'm hosting a survival of the first year party tonight, and some of the gals from Westminster are coming over at 8 for dessert and good company. It will be good to them again! Tomorrow will be spent packing/running errands and then going to a BBQ at Melody's tomorrow night. I might be headed to Provo on Sunday evening for a reunion dinner with Kevin/Megan and Annie/Chris (and maybe Peter?). We'll see! The one more week of school! Yikes! I can't believe we're done. Crazy. The next two weeks are going to be REALLY crazy for me, but I'm looking forward to the next chapter of my life.

Well, I better go ... need to do dishes and get my disaster of a house in a little bit of order so that I can actually host a party. lol Not to mention the fact that I need to play with Denali really hard so that he'll sleep while everyone's here tonight! :) Adios!

Baby news!

We had our first (official) prenatal visit on Thursday (May 21), and it went swimmingly. :) Aside from my morning panic about being able to get to Portland on time, it was a great day! I drove from Medford to Portland that morning and arrived at the office around 12:45, which was just in time for my 1:00 appt. Brandon arrive shortly after 1:00. I filled out paperwork and waited and we were called back about 1:30. Height/weight/pee in a cup/etc -- pretty standard doctor stuff.

Our MA's name is Lisa and she is really awesome. She's funny and totally lighthearted, which is certainly appreciated! We saw Dr. Lohr (Dafna Lohr) and she is great. She answered all of our questions and is really frank and up front. Once all our questions were answered and she had gone over a bunch of routine information out of the pregnancy/birthing book we were given, she had me put on the gown and came back in with an ultrasound machine to take a peek at the baby! Hooray! We got to see our little Ralph for the first time, which was such an amazing feeling! The heartbeat looked nice and strong and the baby was swimming all over the place. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. It was amazing to have Brandon there with me to see our baby for the first time; I can't imagine just coming home and showing him the pictures!

Anyway, little Ralph measured at 8w4d, so we were about 6 days off in our calculations. This puts us at 9 weeks today! Dr. Lohr gave us an EDD of December 29, but when I came home and did the math, that would have only made us 8w2d pregnant, so I'm going to ask her about it next time I'm in the office. By our calculations, 40 weeks will arrive on December 27 -- so we're due sometime around the end of December, shortly after Christmas. :) Either way, it feels great to know how big the baby is and to have seen it moving around. And, of course, the u/s pictures are a great thing to have! Now I can look at little Ralph every day!

Then I got a pelvic and breast exam, but thankfully I didn't have to have a pap since my last one was in October! :) Not that a pap is too far off from a pelvic exam, but oh well. She said everything looks great and that I am an overall healthy young woman and that she expects no problems with my pregnancy. We are going to schedule our first trimester screening that screens for Down Syndrome and Trisomy 18, which is Edward's Syndrome, and can also detect other abnormalities in the fetus. It doesn't tell us if the baby HAS any of those disorders, but it will give us a risk factor. We wouldn't do anything with those results, but it will be good to know that our baby has a low/high risk of something. That way we can start to find out more information and have a clearer picture of whether or not we need to think, "what if?" before the baby comes. We will probably schedule the screening within the first day or two that we are back in Portland since we'll be ~12 weeks when we get back. It involves more blood work (I'm a pro at giving blood now.. I had to give 5 vials after my appt!) and an u/s. I am, of course, pumped to get to see our little man/woman again in just a few weeks! :) (I also can't wait to find out if it is a little man or a little woman! haha!)

Anyway, that was pretty much the long and short of our first appt. We are very happy with our doctor and will stay with her.

I will update the rest of my Portland trip/Medford trip soon. Right now, however, it is time for breakfast! :) Adios.

Today's craving..

Soooo.. it was 90 degrees today, but after emailing Jess to let her know that I will be in town on Thursday, all I wanted to eat was her cheesy potato soup. Keep in mind that I'm in shorts and a tank top with a fan pointed directly at me. lol And yet ... there is cheesy potato soup (the bear creek mix from the green bag) simmering on the stove. Ralph clearly doesn't know what season it is.

Ralph no longer has a tail!

We have our first OB visit on Thursday afternoon, so our current estimated due date might change from December 21. If that is the case and it changes by more than a week in either direction, we might fast forward to 11 weeks or end up back at 8 weeks. We will see! I hope I don't have to repeat too many weeks! :)

Anyway, here is what is happening in my belly this week! :) I am always amazed by the things I read in my emails and books every week! Pregnancy, as strange as it can be, is amazing! Our baby's eyes are fully formed this week! Hooray! I can't wait to see what color they are ..

Your pregnancy: 9 weeks

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

Your new resident is nearly an inch long — about the size of a grape — and weighs just a fraction of an ounce. She's starting to look more and more human. Her essential body parts are accounted for, though they'll go through plenty of fine-tuning in the coming months. Other changes abound: Your baby's heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form — as do her tiny teeth. The embryonic "tail" is completely gone. Your baby's organs, muscles, and nerves are kicking into gear. The external sex organs are there but won't be distinguishable as male or female for another few weeks. Her eyes are fully formed, but her eyelids are fused shut and won't open until 27 weeks. She has tiny earlobes, and her mouth, nose, and nostrils are more distinct. The placenta is developed enough now to take over most of the critical job of producing hormones. Now that your baby's basic physiology is in place, she's poised for rapid weight gain.

Insurance can be a huge nightmare sometimes..

Just a few weeks ago I was posting about how grateful I was for our amazing Blue Cross coverage -- today's post is about how I am slightly less than awestruck with our new Aetna plan. However, it isn't really as much Aetna's fault as it is Brandon's work's fault.

All blaming aside though ... here has been my last few hours.

I have sick time left to use and although it is the end of the year, I have decided I'm going to use it up since it won't be carrying over to next year, which means I could take a nice, long Memorial Day weekend. While trying to decide what days to take I thought I would call the office of the OB I wanted to see and see if I could get in at some point late this week or early next week. They just happened to have an appt on Thursday afternoon, which of course I took! It's not with the doc I had intended to see, but I figure if the first appt doesn't go well, I can always switch the rest of my appts to be with the other doctor. The definitely deal breaker would be if this doctor doesn't deliver babies at the hospital we've already chosen (just based off their services and recommendations, we haven't taken a tour yet).

ANYWAY, I took the appoitment and decided that I'd be going home Wednesday through at least Tuesday. It turns out I actually have FOUR and a half days left instead of the three and a half I had originally thought, so I might decide to stay until Wednesday next week.

(Wow, am I getting sidetracked tonight or what?)

Okay, the point of all this is to say that after a conversation with the doctor's office, I was informed that we have a $2300 deductible on our plan and that our estimated cost for prenatal care was going to be around $2000 and they wanted it paid off by week 28. For those who don't want to do the math, that equals $400/mo for the next 5 months ... starting on Thursday. This, of course, put me into a hormone induced emotional state as I attempted to figure out how the heck I was going to come up with that much money in three days. We're not doing too bad financially, but we are also trying to switch jobs, move, put a deposit down on our new house, etc ... so the extra $400/mo bill would put a lot of stress on us.

After bawling on the phone with a very patient husband who was trying to calm me down and reassure me that things would be fine, I realized that there is NO way I would have signed us up for a plan that has a $2300 deductible -- that is TERRIBLE insurance! So I sign on line and call my mom and relay her the information while checking out the plan booklet for the plan we should have had. The book says we have a $600 deductible and as I'm talking to my mom, she is reminding me of the hours we spent pouring over insurance choices to make sure we got one with similar costs/coverage to what we had with BCBS.

So THEN I have to call Aetna and find out wtf is going on. I was informed by the really helpful guy who answered my call that we had apparently been enrolled in the high deductible plan instead of the one we requested. He said it's not a big deal, we just have to call this 800 number and they could help us sort it out. He told me that since we have an appt on Thursday, we should let them know it's urgent so they can make the switch immediately instead of waiting a week. Of course this is someone Brandon has to call before 6pm and it is currently 5:57pm. lol So I hurried and called him and let him know and thankfully he was able to get through before they closed and switched over to an answering service.

As far as we know, we should be taken care of. All that's left to do is confirm with Aetna tomorrow that we have, in fact, had our plan switched to the Standard PPO plan instead of the High Deductible PPO plan. Then I will need to call the doctor's office and let them know that we have a change in plans so that their benefits coordinator can re-run my information/estimates.

Phew. I have never particularly liked insurance -- but I am thankful when the representatives are helpful and can actually tell you what you need to do to get things fixed. Also, I am super grateful that my office checked on everything for me to let me know that our deductible was so high! Not to mention the fact that my husband and my mother are amazing at helping me actually think things through and get things done, despite my hormone induced emotional state.

Courage is courage -- whatever kind.

Can I just take a moment to say that the strangest feeling in the world is to be nauseated and hungry at the same time? lol Seriously, they are such conflicting feelings and I have never felt both at the same time! Again I will say that pregnancy is the weirdest thing I have ever experienced.

While I'm on the subject of pregnancy, tomorrow I will out of my second month and starting the third! I am pretty excited, but wish I was able to go to the doctor! I am going to Oregon next weekend and am hoping the doctor I've chosen (and will be calling tomorrow) will be able to get me in either Friday or next Tuesday. We'll see!

Anyway, aside from pregnancy my life is pretty dull. lol I've still been sleeping a lot, though the last two days I have had considerably more energy than before. Otherwise I've just been hanging out with Denali, trying to teach him things like how to get back so he is not constantly in my face when we're on the couch, how to greet people without jumping on them, how to get out of the bathroom, and how to not chew on my underwear. He still doesn't realize that I don't like having holes in all my underwear, nor do I like replacing them all the time ... but hopefully he will learn soon. I can't wait until we get a hamper that has a lid! Problem solved! lol He is a good dog though, and I am really glad he is here to keep me company, even though he's kind of annoying at times. Right now, for instance, he has found an open toilet lid and is drinking out of it... lol Puppies..

School is almost over! Only 13 more days, though I will be gone for 2-3 of them! I figured that since I have sick time, I should use it since it won't carry over for me. I'm using my sick time to go home over Memorial Day and visit my family and Brandon. He has Memorial Day off too since his work operates around the college schedule, so I'm excited to be able to spend three days with him. If I'm able to get an appt on Tuesday, I will probably go up Monday night and leave the dog with the fam, which would give us some extra time together too. Either way, I am really looking forward to seeing him!

I still can't believe, however, that school will be over after just 13 more days of class. It is so hard to fathom the end of my first year of teaching. There were a few days when I thought the end would never come, but most of the days were filled with joy and new experiences that have taught me so much about who I am as an educator. Never again will I have a first year or a first class, and these kids (31 of them came and went through my doors) have made such an incredible impact on my life. I am so looking forward to celebrating our year together in the coming days.

Anyway, I have a pizza in the oven and it should be just about done. Time to go make myself more nauseated by filling my need for food! Hooray! ;)

Just a general FYI

Starbucks blended strawberry lemonade could, in fact, be my new favorite drink. If you have not tried one, I highly suggest you get yourself to the nearest Starbucks and order one as soon as possible.

15 random things, taken from a friend.

Pretty sure I'm just supposed to list 15 random things that are on my mind/etc. So here we go.

1. Denali is really smart. I'm teaching him to sit, stay, and wait for the command before fetching his toy. It totally blows my mind that he can catch on so fast! Let's just hope he can retain it until tomorrow. :) He's such a good dog, albeit a total pain in my butt sometimes.

2. The Biggest Loser makes me really happy and feel really satisfied that there are still good things happening in the media. This show takes what is wrong with our world and makes it right while still inspiring others to make themselves better too.

3. My husband is amazing. He worked a full day, avoided a crime scene at the Max station, and then proceeded to look at houses for two hours. He is such a strong provider and I know he will continue to be. He is so loyal and such a fantastic man. I can't believe I got so lucky. :)

4. I am so ready for June 5th. I love my students and my job, but I am so ready.

5. Growing a human is harder than I ever thought it would be, but I am so excited to be a mom!

6. Although unplanned and totally unexpected, this pregnancy is such a blessing to Brandon and me. There is no doubt in my mind that we are ready to be parents and that we will triumph and stumble together, just as we have done for the last six years.

7. I love my friends.

8. My family is amazing. I love them and miss them so much.

9. I want to go to the beach -- even though I was just there last month, I can't get enough of it.

10. Maternity pants are amazing. I am so glad my mom bought me a pair even though I was trying to avoid it as long as possible. They are a little big, but still so much more comfortable than my regular pants!

11. My life is constantly changing, but I am grateful for the paths I've chosen to take.

12. After teaching for a year, I am still convinced that I was born to do this job.

13. I wish I could find a job ... and a house. I'm sure the perfect one of both will come up soon enough, but sometimes I am a little impatient. Now is one of those times.

14. "Reach out and open the door that no one thought could be opened. Life is behind it." ~ Kelly Ann Rothaus

15. I really wanted Tara or Mike to win the Biggest Loser -- it surprises me that it was Helen, but good for her!

The end of my first year.

It is hard to believe that I have successfully survived (and thrived during) my first year of teaching. There are only 16 days of school left and I started packing up my classroom today. It's a strange feeling -- very bittersweet. Part of me really wishes that I could stay at Rose Park next year and see how my kids do in fifth grade. But mostly I am just happy to be moving home where I can be closer to my family and my best friends. There are a lot of things about Salt Lake City that I will miss -- most of those things actually being people rather than things -- but I am so glad that things have worked out and that we are able to be moving back to Oregon. For a while we didn't know if it was in the cards for us this year, but we are grateful that it is.

My head hurts right now, which is going to keep me from reflecting too much at this point. There is plenty of time for that later, but I wanted to make sure I recorded something from today as the packing of three bags marked a huge turning point for me.

Baby update! 8 weeks. :)

My little bean is starting to look less like a dinosaur/alien/whale and more like a baby person! :) I also read in another email (I get about 5 per week.. lol) that this week the baby can start sucking his/her thumb!! :-D Words cannot express how much I look forward to reading about my baby's development every week. Knowing that my little one can start sucking his/her thumb this week pretty much makes my life complete. :)

Your pregnancy: 8 weeks

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

New this week: Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your baby's hands and feet, his eyelids practically cover his eyes, breathing tubes extend from his throat to the branches of his developing lungs, and his "tail" is just about gone. In his brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. You may be daydreaming about your baby as one sex or the other, but the external genitals still haven't developed enough to reveal whether you're having a boy or a girl. Either way, your baby — about the size of a kidney bean — is constantly moving and shifting, though you still can't feel it.

The curse of the baby bloat..

So it is far too early for there to be a legitimate baby bump, but it is definitely not too early to show off my baby BLOAT! haha I'm not showing it off as much as I am posting this for my future journaling reference. It's important to keep track of important things like our first pregnancy. :) Besides, I figure it's good for you to have someone to laugh at as I can officially no longer button my regular jeans. On top of that, they are even uncomfortable when I don't button them and wear my bella-band with them! (For those who don't know, a bella band is this amazing invention... it's pretty much an elastic band that holds up your pants when you're pregnant.. lol) So here it is... bring on the bloat! ;)

This picture was taken at 4 weeks, 6 days or thereabouts. Since we don't know an official estimated due date yet, we're just going off our own calculations.

This picture was taken the other day after a nap ... at 7 weeks, 1 day. Don't mind that I was wearing the exact same outfit.. lol Apparently I don't rotate my clothes enough. This was also the day I realized how horrendously uncomfortable my jeans had become.

Yikes! Ralph is growing hands and feet!

Your pregnancy: 7 weeks

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

The big news this week: Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs — although they look more like paddles at this point than the tiny, pudgy extremities you're daydreaming about holding and tickling. Technically, your baby is still considered an embryo and has something of a small tail, which is an extension of her tailbone. The tail will disappear within a few weeks, but that's the only thing getting smaller. Your baby has doubled in size since last week and now measures half an inch long, about the size of a blueberry.

If you could see inside your womb, you'd spot eyelid folds partially covering her peepers, which already have some color, as well as the tip of her nose and tiny veins beneath parchment-thin skin. Both hemispheres of your baby's brain are growing, and her liver is churning out red blood cells until her bone marrow forms and takes over this role. She also has an appendix and a pancreas, which will eventually produce the hormone insulin to aid in digestion. A loop in your baby's growing intestines is bulging into her umbilical cord, which now has distinct blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients to and from her tiny body.

Thank heavens for good insurance!

Never before have I have been so grateful for good health insurance! Last week I got a statement from the hospital with the $2300 worth of charges from my ER visit on it. It was one of those statements that tells you what they're billing insurance and leaves you nervous that you're going to be paying a large piece of that bill. Anyway, today I got my statements from Blue Cross showing what they paid ... and they paid ALL of it! Every single penny that was owed to the hospital (including enough to warrant a return of my $100 copay from the hospital) was paid by our benefits. That has NEVER happened from an ER visit! We think it was because it was emergency maternity care instead of just emergency care, but either way ... we are so thankful. This was NOT a bill we were looking forward to having to pay, especially with us moving! We are also really grateful for it because the visit was totally pointless since they miscalculated how far along I was, and thus misdiagnosed a miscarriage. Needless to say we REALLY didn't want to pay the bill!

I am definitely pregnant.

I am salivating over the thought of Pringles, fruit snacks, and a watermelon jolly rancher ... there are none of those things at my house right now.

I think I need to go to the store. I haven't been able to stop thinking about those things since about 5:00 this evening.. lol

Pregnancy is such a weird thing sometimes. Good to know Baby Ralph is healthy though. ;)