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!!