I'm 20 weeks pregnant now - that is theoretically half way. My tummy is definitely pregnant looking now - the other day I wore a top to work that was designed to be sort of tight under my (now enormous) boobs, and then flares out over my tummy and it must have accentuated my pregnant state since about every second customer asked me when my baby was due! It was really fun :)
Still feeling fantastic, my skin is really great (the best its ever been I think), and of course I am enjoying having a larger bust for a change!!! I have even had several random guys give me the old wink and smile come-on thing which no-one has done to me in YEARS, so it's all very interesting.
I hope you like some of the pictures I have chosen from our scan to put up here. I have about 40 images, so one day if you come to visit I can show you.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Here is a great shot of our cute baby! Now don't get the wrong idea and think it is busy sleeping - this is one active baby! We couldn't believe how much it leaps around when we saw it on the video - just constantly moving and kicking and punching and so on... I love this picture and how you can see all the fingers and facial features. (you can double click on any of the pics to see a bigger version)
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Our baby's development 15-19 weeks
Ok, this will fast track us up to today's developmental stage.
15 weeks:
At around 4 inches long, crown to rump, your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 ounces. He's busy inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, which will help develop the air sacs in his lungs. His legs are growing longer than his arms now, and he can move all his joints and limbs. That means his hands are more functional, too. Sweat glands are appearing, and although his eyelids are fused shut, he can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, he's likely to move away from the beam. There's not much for your baby to taste at this point, but his taste buds are beginning to form.
They couldn't even think of a fruit for a size comparison this week! I think we decided a pear was appropriate.
16 weeks:
At 4 1/2 inches long (head to bottom) and 3 1/2 ounces, your baby is about the size of an avocado. In the next three weeks, she'll go through a tremendous growth spurt, though, doubling her weight and adding inches to her length. Her lower limbs are much more developed now. Her head is more erect than it has been, and her eyes have moved toward the front of her head. Your baby's ears are close to their final position, too. Some of her more advanced body systems are working, including her circulatory system and urinary tract. Her heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day. (By the end of your pregnancy, this will increase to about 190 quarts.) The patterning of her scalp has begun, though her hair isn't recognizable yet. Although closed, her eyes are moving (slowly), and she's even started growing toenails.
Wow, sounds like this week's growth spurt was good - hope I took lots of vitamins...
17 weeks:
Your baby weighs about 5 ounces now, and he's around 5 inches long — about the size of a large onion. He can move his joints, and his skeleton — until now rubbery cartilage — is starting to harden to bone. His sense of hearing is also developing. The umbilical cord, his lifeline to the placenta, is growing stronger and thicker.
How is an onion bigger than an avocado? With the skeleton starting to harden up this week, I've decided to increase my calcium and mineral intake. I can really feel the need for these extra minerals, since I have been waking up with the most incredible leg cramps - which is a classic sign of magnesium and calcium deficiency. Basically Poppy is taking my stores of these minerals and I suffer the consequences. Easily fixed though! I have some great calcium powder to add to my daily protein shakes.
18 weeks:
Head to bottom, your baby is approximately 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a large sweet potato) and she weighs almost 7 ounces. She's busy flexing her arms and legs — movements that you'll likely start noticing more and more. Her blood vessels are visible through her thin skin and her ears are now in position and stand out from her head. Myelin (a protective covering) is beginning to form around her nerves, a process that will continue for a year after she's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and Fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If your baby is a boy, his genitals are noticeable, though he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.
Yes I have DEFINITELY been feeling lots and lots of movement and kicks! It is much more noticeable now and more frequent, like whenever I am sitting still or relaxing or eating or lying down. KICK! It feels so strange. Mainly the kicks feel like the are on my tummy side of my uterus, but considering it is a 3D hollow shape, occasionally I get a kick and a punch at the same time, but on opposite sides of the uterus so it really feels like I am hollow. It's very odd. But totally amazing thinking I am growing a person inside me!
19 weeks:
Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces, and he measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the length of a small zucchini. His arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of his body now. His kidneys continue to make urine, and the hair on his scalp is sprouting. This is a crucial time for sensory development: Your baby's brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. If your baby is a girl, she has an astonishing six million eggs in her ovaries. They'll dwindle to fewer than two million by the time she's born.
So we're about 15cm measured in a straight line from the top of the head to the buttocks, then legs are additional to that measurement. That's getting pretty big! Tomorrow we have a 4D scan to check on Poppy and hopefully find out if we are having a girl or a boy. Since some people are not sure if they want to know what we are having yet, I will not announce it here....you will have to email us if you want to know!
15 weeks:
At around 4 inches long, crown to rump, your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 ounces. He's busy inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, which will help develop the air sacs in his lungs. His legs are growing longer than his arms now, and he can move all his joints and limbs. That means his hands are more functional, too. Sweat glands are appearing, and although his eyelids are fused shut, he can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, he's likely to move away from the beam. There's not much for your baby to taste at this point, but his taste buds are beginning to form.
They couldn't even think of a fruit for a size comparison this week! I think we decided a pear was appropriate.
16 weeks:
At 4 1/2 inches long (head to bottom) and 3 1/2 ounces, your baby is about the size of an avocado. In the next three weeks, she'll go through a tremendous growth spurt, though, doubling her weight and adding inches to her length. Her lower limbs are much more developed now. Her head is more erect than it has been, and her eyes have moved toward the front of her head. Your baby's ears are close to their final position, too. Some of her more advanced body systems are working, including her circulatory system and urinary tract. Her heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day. (By the end of your pregnancy, this will increase to about 190 quarts.) The patterning of her scalp has begun, though her hair isn't recognizable yet. Although closed, her eyes are moving (slowly), and she's even started growing toenails.
Wow, sounds like this week's growth spurt was good - hope I took lots of vitamins...
17 weeks:
Your baby weighs about 5 ounces now, and he's around 5 inches long — about the size of a large onion. He can move his joints, and his skeleton — until now rubbery cartilage — is starting to harden to bone. His sense of hearing is also developing. The umbilical cord, his lifeline to the placenta, is growing stronger and thicker.
How is an onion bigger than an avocado? With the skeleton starting to harden up this week, I've decided to increase my calcium and mineral intake. I can really feel the need for these extra minerals, since I have been waking up with the most incredible leg cramps - which is a classic sign of magnesium and calcium deficiency. Basically Poppy is taking my stores of these minerals and I suffer the consequences. Easily fixed though! I have some great calcium powder to add to my daily protein shakes.
18 weeks:
Head to bottom, your baby is approximately 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a large sweet potato) and she weighs almost 7 ounces. She's busy flexing her arms and legs — movements that you'll likely start noticing more and more. Her blood vessels are visible through her thin skin and her ears are now in position and stand out from her head. Myelin (a protective covering) is beginning to form around her nerves, a process that will continue for a year after she's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and Fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If your baby is a boy, his genitals are noticeable, though he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.
Yes I have DEFINITELY been feeling lots and lots of movement and kicks! It is much more noticeable now and more frequent, like whenever I am sitting still or relaxing or eating or lying down. KICK! It feels so strange. Mainly the kicks feel like the are on my tummy side of my uterus, but considering it is a 3D hollow shape, occasionally I get a kick and a punch at the same time, but on opposite sides of the uterus so it really feels like I am hollow. It's very odd. But totally amazing thinking I am growing a person inside me!
19 weeks:
Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces, and he measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the length of a small zucchini. His arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of his body now. His kidneys continue to make urine, and the hair on his scalp is sprouting. This is a crucial time for sensory development: Your baby's brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. If your baby is a girl, she has an astonishing six million eggs in her ovaries. They'll dwindle to fewer than two million by the time she's born.
So we're about 15cm measured in a straight line from the top of the head to the buttocks, then legs are additional to that measurement. That's getting pretty big! Tomorrow we have a 4D scan to check on Poppy and hopefully find out if we are having a girl or a boy. Since some people are not sure if they want to know what we are having yet, I will not announce it here....you will have to email us if you want to know!
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
During the day at ebay
Ok, well that was a picture view of our nightly entertainment. During the day we went to all sorts of interesting and boring seminars about how to expand my ebay business and all that. We also spent a lot of time in the huge exhibition hall, gathering goodies, and seeing what interesting tools are available to people if you want to spend all sorts of money on time saving things, pretty-making things and general selling tools.
We also hung out in the Powerseller Lounge with free drinks and internet and talked to heaps of people. We hardly ever came across two people selling the same things on ebay.
In between all that, we experimented with the local restaurants for lunch. And we went to the Tech Museum. Well actually, we decided it was too expensive so we went to the Tech Museum Shop which was very fun. Science is fun!
I've probably forgotten lots of interesting stories I wanted to share, but in the end we were very glad to be making our way back to our normal lives in normal New Zealand. It was worth going for the experience, and I did get lots of ideas for making my ebay business better...but we have no desire to go back to the US for a long time! Although I could make a lot of money there offering basic nutritional consultations to people, like REALLY basic ones on how to eat properly!
I have to go to bed now, so tomorrow I will try to update our baby blog with developmental info. I also have a picture of my expanding tummy to put up! TUMMY!
We also hung out in the Powerseller Lounge with free drinks and internet and talked to heaps of people. We hardly ever came across two people selling the same things on ebay.
In between all that, we experimented with the local restaurants for lunch. And we went to the Tech Museum. Well actually, we decided it was too expensive so we went to the Tech Museum Shop which was very fun. Science is fun!
I've probably forgotten lots of interesting stories I wanted to share, but in the end we were very glad to be making our way back to our normal lives in normal New Zealand. It was worth going for the experience, and I did get lots of ideas for making my ebay business better...but we have no desire to go back to the US for a long time! Although I could make a lot of money there offering basic nutritional consultations to people, like REALLY basic ones on how to eat properly!
I have to go to bed now, so tomorrow I will try to update our baby blog with developmental info. I also have a picture of my expanding tummy to put up! TUMMY!
On the second night, ebay had hired out the Great America Amusement park for the night! So here I am. They put on a free barbeque for everyone, and my pregnancy hormones had me hankering for one of those fake hot dogs i'd seen people scoffing. Luckily they had them on the menu! Along with a host of other fake foods. Our only greens was the fake gerkin sauce for the hotdogs! Somehow I managed to eat a whole hotdog, then nearly threw up, but it satisfied (and completely ended) my craving. Dessert was an array of the most brightly coloured icecreams I have ever seen. I chose a vanilla icecream sandwich thinking it would be the safest, but their icecream is so yukky that i didn't even finish it. So off we went to look at all the rides. It took us maybe 2 hours to walk around the park and look at everything, plus visit some of the BILLIONS of nickleodeon stores they had everywhere. You would think maybe a shop at each corner of the park, but no, there were merchandise shops everywhere you looked! And you would think there is only a limited amount of Spongebob etc stuff that could be manufactured....but the shops all had different stuff! I bought some Fairly Odd Parents things for fun. We went on no rides, but watching them was fun. The lines were pretty long...
In the rest and relaxtion area in between all the hotels, they had PROFESSIONAL SANDCASTLE GUYS making a replica of some ebay model. It was pretty cool! Oh to build sandcastles for money. In this area you could also get silly things done like have the ebay logo airbrushed onto your bald head (we saw many of those), or your legs or wherever you wanted...and you could get the ebay colours put in your hair - which actually meant having ridiculous long furry streamers tied stupidly to your head. Yet so many people did it. I got my nails done with the ebay logo, but they were silly and i picked them off. They also had a 'barbeque' in this area, which was really just this big smelly smokey thing that they put 'meat' into and smoked it until it was really really dead then charged you lots. Anyway, it was a nice place to sit down in the sun and ponder the craziness of americans. (and give out my free goodie bags)
Oh yeah and we all got glowing things. I thought it looked like a slide of germs, hehehe. Anyway, this keynote speech was like some sort of religious cult. People were screaming and crying and virtually fainting in the aisles when the ebay CEO (a lovely lady called Meg Whitman) came out. It seems that in the US, ebay has changed so many people's lives - there were heaps of disabled people who have been able to now make a living. There were also the most amount of deaf people I have ever seen in one place and just about all the seminars had a signer-person. Even the US Postmaster General was a 'surprise special guest' which caused more commotion...of course, with ebay being so big, the postal system LOVES it and wants to do whatever it can. So they were outlining all their new strategies - the poor guy could not ever finish a sentence, as after each mini-point he made, the crowd would go wild, then he would have to finish the point which made even more craziness...and so it went on. A quick 3 minute speech turned into a 10+ minute cheering match (we were getting bored and overwhelmed by then). We couldn't get over how over the top everything was!
The first night, we went to a giant sports stadium where they were holding the Keynote Speech. The pre-entertainment was these crazy people dangling from the ceiling and doing aerial dancing. There were SOOO many people - it was pretty much packed out. Like 12,000 people. And 'food' was provided free for everyone! (well, like hotdogs and pretzels and nachos and fake cheese and things). We managed to find the unpopular food stand near the back that had free fruit salad and things... it was even nice!!
Here I am in my crazy New Zealand costume and my oversized lanyard with only a small cllection of pins on it (the rest are stashed in the several bags I'm lugging around!). This picture was taken outside the convention centre - they had the entire surrounding areas all decorated, including the whole outside of the building.
Yes I know - its been ages since our last update!
We've been rather slack i know. The ebay conference was so full on each day that i only had time to list the items we gathered for sale and not do much else... so now I will finish our ebay story then get back to our Poppy growing story :)
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