Dec 1st - 16 Weeks Pregnant!

Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.

Nov 24th - 15 Weeks Pregnant!

Your growing baby now measures about 4 inches long, crown to rump, and weighs in at about 2 1/2 ounces (about the size of an apple). She's busy moving amniotic fluid through her nose and upper respiratory tract, which helps the primitive air sacs in her lungs begin to develop. Her legs are growing longer than her arms now, and she can move all of her joints and limbs. Although her eyelids are still fused shut, she can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, for instance, she's likely to move away from the beam. There's not much for your baby to taste at this point, but she is forming taste buds. Finally, if you have an ultrasound this week, you may be able to find out whether your baby's a boy or a girl! (Don't be too disappointed if it remains a mystery, though. Nailing down your baby's sex depends on the clarity of the picture and on your baby's position. He or she may be modestly curled up or turned in such a way as to "hide the goods.")

Nov 17th - 14 Weeks Pregnant!

This week's big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him — a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb.

In other news: Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon — and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces. His body's growing faster than his head, which now sits upon a more distinct neck. By the end of this week, his arms will have grown to a length that's in proportion to the rest of his body. (His legs still have some lengthening to do.) He's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over his body. Your baby's liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it's doing its job right — and his spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though you can't feel his tiny punches and kicks yet, your little pugilist's hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active.

Nov 10th - 13 weeks pregnant!!

Fingerprints have formed on your baby's tiny fingertips, her veins and organs are clearly visible through her still-thin skin, and her body is starting to catch up with her head — which makes up just a third of her body size now. If you're having a girl, she now has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries. Your baby is almost 3 inches long (the size of a medium shrimp) and weighs nearly an ounce.

Nov 3rd - 12 weeks pregnant!

The most dramatic development this week: reflexes. Your baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, his toes will curl, his eye muscles will clench, and his mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. His intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into his abdominal cavity about now, and his kidneys will begin excreting urine into his bladder.

Meanwhile, nerve cells are multiplying rapidly, and in your baby's brain, synapses are forming furiously. His face looks unquestionably human: His eyes have moved from the sides to the front of his head, and his ears are right where they should be. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over 2 inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.

Oct. 28th - Dr. Appt

I went to the Dr. today for my first official OB visit and got to see the baby again. I was shocked to see how much bigger it looked and most of all how much it was moving! He or She kept rolling onto it's side then back onto it's back. I even got to see it put it's hand in it's mouth! The Dr. was even having a hard time measuring it because it was a "moving target" as the Dr. called it. I am in serious trouble if this one is as active as Johnny. Watch out world, Costello #2 is a MOVER! Here are some pics from the ultrasound. The baby kept giving us the cold shoulder and turning away so these pictures are of the baby's back again. The head is to the right and it's little rear end is on the left. Imagine the baby is laying on it's right side. That little blob you see above the baby is it's hand!

Big Brother!

Johnny is getting more excited about the baby everyday. I know he's too little to really grasp the concept of what is going on and what is to come, but he pats my belly now and loves to give the baby kisses. I cant wait until he can feel his brother or sister kicking! Here are a few pics of the proud big brother in his new shirt!

Oct. 27th - 11 Weeks Pregnant!

Your baby, just over 1 1/2 inches long and about the size of a fig, is now almost fully formed. Her hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under her gums, and some of her bones are beginning to harden.

She's already busy kicking and stretching, and her tiny movements are so effortless they look like water ballet. These movements will become more frequent as her body grows and becomes more developed and functional. You won't feel your baby's acrobatics for another month or two — nor will you notice the hiccupping that may be happening now that her diaphragm is forming.

Blooming Belly

I realized I hadn't been sharing any of my belly pics and part of that is because I've been so lazy about taking them this time around! I've promised myself that I will start taking one closer to every week if I can remember :) For now here are a few that I've taken and it's amazing to see the progression already! Whats even more amazing is how much faster you "pop" out with a second baby!

6 weeks...

8 Weeks...

10 Weeks...

Oct 20th - 10 weeks pregnant!

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.

"I'm a big brother!"

Today Johnny got a very special gift from our dear friends the Leideckers. He got his first "big brother" book! Johnny is very into reading books these days and I was so excited when we received this book as a gift. Thank you Brad, Lauri and Ethan. He loves it!

Monday Oct. 11 - Dr Appt

So this past weekend I actually started spotting a little bit. I wasn't too concerned because the same thing had happened to me when i was pregnant with Johnny. But just to be on the safe side I made an appt. to see a Dr. to get the green light that everything looked ok with the baby. They did another ultrasound to check the baby and verify a heartbeat and everything looked great! We are thrilled and it was very fun to get to see our little green olive again (that's about the size of the baby right now...approx. 1" long!) The coolest part of the visit and ultrasound was when the Dr. went back to let us just see the baby for a bit and the baby was actually moving! S/He was moving around and wiggling these small little jerky movements. We never saw Johnny moving on an ultrasound until 20wks so this was awe inspiring to know that at just 9wks along our little guy or gal is already a wiggler! The photo of the ultrasound we got was also very different than any picture we got with Johnny. It's actually of the baby from a position of looking at it's back! The bottom right side of the baby is the back of its head and the top left side is it's little rear end! If you look very closely you can see a small section towards the head of the baby that is more white than the rest of the baby, that's it's heart! We like to call this picture our little bean!
So far my due date has been switched from May 18th to the 14th to the 16th so as of now I'm not 100% sure how far along I am or when I'm actually due. All I know is I'm somewhere between 8-9 weeks and I'm due mid May and for now that's enough for me! We have another Dr appt on the 28th so we may know more then!

Oct. 9th - 9 Weeks Pregnant!

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.

Oct. 2nd - 8 Weeks Pregnant!

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.

Sept. 29th - First Ultrasound!

We are so excited that today we got to SEE our little peanut (although s/he is only the size of a raspberry). We had our first "confirmation" ultrasound and yes in fact there is a little baby in there! The most exciting part of the day (besides hearing that everything looks healthy) was seeing the heartbeat! The tiny flutters are so amazing to see and makes this all feel so much more real. I thought that I was 7 weeks today, but according to measurements I am 7 weeks and 4 days pregnant. This puts our official due date at May 14th, 2011. So if all goes well we will have ourselves a little mothers day baby!
Another thing I am pretty excited about is the Rx for Zofran my Dr. prescribed me! Zofran is an anti-nausea medication that is safe for pregnancy and supposedly helps a ton with severe morning sickness like I am having. I get to start taking it tonight so I'm looking forward to seeing if it helps. Fingers crossed!

Sept. 25th - 7 Weeks Pregnant!

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.

Ellie's Sixth Sense

Lately our dog Ellie has been acting differently towards me. Ever since I've been pregnant she follows me around the house, lays in whatever room I am in and even has been sleeping in our room with us which she hasn't done since we moved into our new home. I started thinking, well if dogs can sense earthquakes and other natural disasters, medical conditions in people and much more, could Ellie possibly sense the fact that I'm pregnant? So I did a little research and found out that in fact it is VERY possible in fact that is probably what is going on!

Ellie - 4 Yr old shepherd/pit mix

"Although your dog may not actually understand that you are pregnant, they do notice any changes in your behavior, posture, routine and emotions. These changes may be so minor that you don’t even notice them yourself. But dogs are very much in tune with such differences and will pick up on them right away."

"It has also been suggested that dogs may be so sensitive to pregnancy because of the variations in hormones and pheromones in pregnant women. Dogs have an amazing sense of smell that is vastly superior to humans. In fact, their ability to smell is one million times better than humans; when stretched out, their smelling receivers can cover an area of 130m2. In humans, our smelling receptors will only cover 3m2. This is why, before the pregnancy symptoms kick in, before the pregnancy tests are taken, your dog might start to act a bit…different."

http://www.babycenter.com/404_can-pets-sense-pregnancy_1379572.bc

Sept. 18th - 6 Weeks Pregnant!

This week's major developments: The nose, mouth, and ears that you'll spend so much time kissing in eight months are beginning to take shape. If you could see into your uterus, you'd find an oversize head and dark spots where your baby's eyes and nostrils are starting to form. His emerging ears are marked by small depressions on the sides of the head, and his arms and legs by protruding buds. His heart is beating about 100 to 160 times a minute — almost twice as fast as yours — and blood is beginning to course through his body. His intestines are developing, and the bud of tissue that will give rise to his lungs has appeared. His pituitary gland is forming, as are the rest of his brain, muscles, and bones. Right now, your baby is a quarter of an inch long, about the size of a lentil.

Morning (noon, and night) sickness

I think that whoever named it "morning sickness" obviously never experienced it or only saw his wife sick in the morning before he left for work! My morning (noon and night) sickness kicked in this week fully stocked with that lingering queasy feeling, headache, over sensitive sense of smell and aversions to just about everything. I know that this is a fleeting time in the pregnancy and that by my 2nd trimester I should be feeling just great, but O..M..G 6 more weeks of this seems like an awful long time to feel like you have the worlds worst hangover. And you know the worst part? I didn't even get to have that glass of wine (or 3) last night to make me feel this way! Ah the joys of pregnancy and how quickly they rear their ugly heads! :)

Sept. 11th - 5 Weeks Pregnant!

Deep in your uterus your embryo is growing at a furious pace. At this point, he's about the size of a sesame seed, and he looks more like a tiny tadpole than a human. He's now made up of three layers — the ectoderm, the mesoderm, and the endoderm — which will later form all of his organs and tissues.

The neural tube — from which your baby's brain, spinal cord, nerves, and backbone will sprout — is starting to develop in the top layer, called the ectoderm. This layer will also give rise to his skin, hair, nails, mammary and sweat glands, and tooth enamel.

His heart and circulatory system begin to form in the middle layer, or mesoderm. (This week, in fact, his tiny heart begins to divide into chambers and beat and pump blood.) The mesoderm will also form your baby's muscles, cartilage, bone, and subcutaneous (under skin) tissue.

The third layer, or endoderm, will house his lungs, intestines, and rudimentary urinary system, as well as his thyroid, liver, and pancreas. In the meantime, the primitive placenta and umbilical cord, which deliver nourishment and oxygen to your baby, are already on the job.

Sept. 4th - 4 Weeks Pregnant!

This week marks the beginning of the embryonic period. From now until 10 weeks, all of your baby's organs will begin to develop and some will even begin to function. As a result, this is the time when she'll be most vulnerable to anything that might interfere with her development.

Right now your baby is an embryo the size of a poppy seed, consisting of two layers: the epiblast and the hypoblast, from which all of her organs and body parts will develop.

The primitive placenta is also made up of two layers at this point. Its cells are tunneling into the lining of your uterus, creating spaces for your blood to flow so that the developed placenta will be able to provide nutrients and oxygen to your growing baby when it starts to function at the end of this week.

Also present now are the amniotic sac, which will house your baby; the amniotic fluid, which will cushion her as she grows; and the yolk sac, which produces your baby's red blood cells and helps deliver nutrients to her until the placenta has developed and is ready to take over this duty.

Sept. 2nd - We're Pregnant!

Watch out because here comes Costello baby #2! Early September, 2010 I took the first of what would turn into 4 home pregnancy tests and they were all positive! Although it will be weeks before we see our doctor, all the signs point to me being pregnant and with all the fear of having a new baby also comes the pure bliss and excitement of knowing we have created a miracle! We can't wait to share the good news with everyone and keep everyone up to date on how things are going with our little family! Welcome to our baby blog!!