8 Weeks Old!

“You never understand life until it grows inside of you.” Sandra Chami Kassis

      Hi everyone! I have much to discuss, with so many amazing new developments in my pregnancy! I went to the doctor earlier this week to have my first prenatal appointment and discovered that I was further along then I thought! The baby is eight weeks old!

photo taken from medicinenet.com

      That means the baby now has budding fingers and toes, knee caps, a brain with both hemispheres (and neural pathways), a heart that beats 150s/min, liver, pancreas and eyelids. The baby may even be able to sit with his/her legs in front of his/her little body AND be able to move his/her tiny limbs! Despite all this tremendous progress, the baby is only the size of a kidney bean! Incredible! It's truly mind blowing to witness how quickly a baby grows within mother's womb. It's a week-by-week event. God is amazing!

      I originally made my appointment to better understand a confusing symptom I was having: pelvic pain. It's a sharp, shooting pain that comes and goes, and it primarily effects my pelvis and groin regions. I thought that I wasn't far enough in my pregnancy to be experiencing that symptom, which is an indicator of the uterus stretching, but my practitioner informed me that some women get that symptom early and she was sure that's what I had. After discussing my symptoms we made my next appointment and I received two scripts: one for my ultrasound and the other was a blood test. I found out later from my Aunt Robin that I can find out the baby's gender via blood test, which is 99% accurate and can be taken as early as 10 weeks into the pregnancy. Russ and I are so elated to learn whether we're having a bouncy boy or a sweet girl soon.

       How did this all begin happening so fast?! I'm so excited! Here's a picture of my growing belly!