My Pregnancy: 14 weeks

How our baby's growing:
This week's big developments: Our 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 I were to have an ultrasound now, I might even catch him sucking his thumb.

In other news: Our 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. Our 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 I can't feel his tiny punches and kicks yet, our little pugilist's hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active.

Is it February already???

Wow, this year is already flying by. What the hell happened to January? It was here and gone in the blink of an eye.

So, things are going good around these parts except for the fact that Jack and I are sick with a cold. (Pregnancy+Cold=Misery). Unfortunately for me, when my kids get sick they are MAJORLY cranky and not at all sleepy. Uggg...

I got a call from my ob/gyn today and my first trimester screen came back negative which means we have a low chance of having a baby with Down's. Yay! I have my next appointment a week from Thursday. I'm excited about this because I'll be 14 weeks then and they like to see you every 4 weeks, so when I make my next appointment I'm going to see if they will schedule my "big ultrasound" at the same time (I'll be 18 weeks then). I really don't want to wait until 20 weeks to find out if it's a girl or a boy. It's killing me not knowing. I don't know how those people who are surprised at the birth do it.

I'm proud to say I'm still running. I ran a 5k this past Saturday in Dade City. I came in at 27:10. I thought that was pretty darn impressive being that my best 5k time ever is 26:25. I felt really good running it to. I was nervous that I would get really out of breath, but it didn't happen. I only slowed to a walk one time and that was just to drink my little cup of water. The Angels ran it too and they did really good as well. It was a great day for everyone. I felt SO good to run fast. I'm dreading the day I get to big to run that way. There is something so free-ing (yeah, i make up words, so what?) about running fast.

In other news, Chip's job offered him a very generous amount of money per month for us to move back to Sarasota and rent a house that accommodates us. I'm excited, but very nervous. We'd move back in June if the plan goes through. It will be nice to have the privacy of our own place again, but I've really got all my help here in Tampa. I'll keep you posted on that one.