So heres the lay of the land. Below are postings relevant to each week we have missed and some subsequent background info on any happenings that week, as well as a picture for that weeks view of "Bump", as our little gender neutral addition has affectionately been named. (No that will NOT be the poor bugger's name!!! but we are reserving the right to use it as a potentially embarrassing nickname later in life. Every parent needs a little future leverage right??!!)
Alright so here goes......
17 WEEKS
We would like to think that each week has an abundance of interesting things to blog about, however not so much. Week 17 was, well, a typical week with no real surprises. It was during this time that we came up with the nickname "Bump" from some mutual friends of ours " Thank you Jess and Andy!!". As an aside, Jess is 10 weeks ahead of us and currently at the 30 week mark with a baby girl on the way ( Andy DEFINITELY has his work cut out for him in a house full of ladies....Good luck, brother...;) )
As you can see Mama's Bump has been progressing right along nicely. Our reference guide gave us some info on Bump's likely appearance. Baby is about 9 inches long and about 8 ounces and is developing the Vernix. Lets just call it Bump's raincoat for a long 40 week soak. OH !! did I mention the bladder tapping!! Seems this week our little one just found this really neat ballon to play with... Mama was definitely impressed with that find!
18 WEEKS
We (meaning Donlyn, of course) can put this week down in the books as the week that Bump went 10 rounds with both the ovaries and the bladder... Don't think I need to tell you who is winning..... Bump's love taps have been getting stronger and a bit more frequent. Neither of us have been able to feel movements from the outside yet but believe you me no problems feeling them from the inside.
It is really amazing for both of us to watch as this life grows bigger by the day. As of this week, we were informed that depending on the sex of Bump, ovaries have formed or testes have formed and begun to drop. We are also noticing that Bump seems to have periods of sleep or rest and periods of activity. Sounds by all accounts things are right on track!!
Thought we might include this picture for a little Mama's perspective. " Hey is that a toe growing out of your belly button??!!" It looks like this is the last holdout remaining to be seen beyond the ever-growing belly. And the weeks keep on ticking away......
19 WEEKS
19 weeks found us a bit on edge. After feeling this little one move about for the better part of 4 weeks, there was suddenly no movement felt at all. We were quite worried that something was wrong. Even though we had an appointment the next day, the nurse had us come in right away to do a fetal heart rate check. Sure enough, she easily found the heart beat. It was a very strong 150 BPM and she even felt Bump push back against the doppler!
She told us it was very common at this stage of pregnancy to go from feeling a lot of baby movement to none at all. There is a ton of amniotic fluid in there and only a teeny tiny baby in comparison. This means that the baby's movements are absorbed by the space before there is time to feel them.
With our minds at ease, we went home. It turns out that three days of worrying with little sleep will exhaust an already tired momma-to-be. Bozley sensed this need for rest and immediately (after his excitement at welcoming us home) jumped up on mama's lap to help with the resting by protecting Bump with his body. It looks like this pup is starting to warm to this whole baby thing. Trust us, that has not always been the case, but that is a blog in and of itself...for another time.
