17 weeks

Well, I've been a blog delinquent. I missed writing about 16 weeks entirely and a couple of other things here and there. I'll try my best to get caught up with the ongoings of pregnancy land.

I wish I had a good excuse for the length of my entire hiatus, but alas, I do not. I will however play the 'I was sick' card to get out of some flack I might get. I am now almost fully recovered from what I like to call the death plague also known as the most evil cold/flu from Hell. I will never quite understand why people feel that they are so important that they must continue to come to work and spread their filthy sick germs around. It is particularly baffling considering that many of us have the flexibility to work from home when we need to. Just like how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, I guess this is one of those mysteries we will never really know the answer to. (Story for another time - I actually do know how many licks it takes, Megs and I counted when we were 11 and have certificates to prove it)

I had my 16 week check-up appointment with my practice last week. I met another one of the doctors and while she wasn't as nicey nice as the last one, she seems ok. The excitement of appointments is wearing off as I realize all I get to do is pee in cup, get weighed, ask a couple of questions, listen to baby's heartbeat (it's still cool), set up my next appointment and be on my way. I suppose it's a good thing as it means everything is progressing along normally and we don't have anything major to worry about. We're looking forward to next week's ultrasound appointment where they will do an anatomy scan and make sure all of the baby's parts are in all of the right places, get measurements, etc.

The baby is growing and so am I. It's starting to make getting dressed in the morning a challenge. I don't have a ton of stuff yet because I know that the cold weather is on it's way out and I don't really need maternity tops yet, but regular tops don't quite look right and I'm still holding out on telling work. I think I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and tell soon if for no other reason than so I can wear some empire waisted tops. I took a picture of my belly this morning. I guess it's noticeable, but I mostly just feel big and depending upon what I wear it still just looks as if I've been enjoying a lot of cookies. I guess you can be the judge.

What do you think? Cookie fiend or pregnant lady?

On the baby's development, our trusty email tells us:

Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and he's around 5 inches long. The umbilical cord, his lifeline to the placenta, is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby can move his joints, and his skeleton — until now, rubbery cartilage is starting to harden into bone. Some of it will remain cartilage for years after he's born. A newborn's skeleton has 300 parts (a combination of bone and cartilage). As your child grows, some of these parts harden and fuse together. By the time your baby reaches adulthood, he'll have just 206 bones.