13 Weeks

Thirteen weeks along and feeling strong.

Technically, I'm not quite through the first trimester yet, but am oh-so-close! Aside from a three-day debilitating headache, I have been feeling great for the last two weeks. I am confident I made the right decision to not travel back East, although I did miss seeing my brother, grandmother, and extended family at my cousin's wedding.

This week I'm busy growing my baby's fingerprints. S/he is three inches long, likened to the size of a shrimp, and weighs about 1 oz. I'm still wearing my regular clothes, saving those new maternity clothes for a time of true need. But my clothes feel tighter and my body feels softer. I'm pretty sure that's a product of not working out, not necessarily the baby's fault. I have fewer food aversions, and have diversified my diet to include the occasional green veggie. I never did hear back from Kaiser after the first trimester screen, so I'm just going to assume that no news is good news. Then again, that wasn't the case for Pam and Stephen. Their no-news following Michael's death was a failure of professional communication. Not cool. I'm still really excited to meet Baby, but it feels so far off, so right now I'm most excited to find out the gender. I know lots of people like to keep the gender a surprise, for the romance of it all. But because there is so little I get to control, it's just one thing I can cling to to inspire more specific daydreams. We still have to wait almost two months to find out, but that's my next big milestone. And then I can name that Baby!!! Amelia, Oliver, Ruby, Benson, Francine, Cecilia, Henry, Liam, Emmy, Max, Wyatt, Emilyn, Sylvia, Nora, Nancy ...

Babycenter.com emailed me a funny cartoon that I wasn't able to find online again to post here. It was something the effect of, "If you look really, really close, you can see that I'm showing."