Week 19

It is already week 19! Our baby should weigh about 8 1/2 ounces, and measure 6 inches, head to bottom (about the size of a large heirloom tomato). We had our “20 week” ultrasound on Monday and our baby already weighs 12 ounces! Yikes, that is a big baby…measuring about 1 ½ weeks bigger than normal! Its arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and to the rest of its body now. The kidneys continue to make urine, and the hair on its scalp is sprouting (that is if our baby will end up having any hair!). This is a crucial time for sensory development: Our baby's brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch.
The ultrasound was so cool! We got to see all of the developing organs including the brain, heart, both kidneys, bladder, and even the arteries that run from the umbilical cord and wrap around the bladder! It was truly amazing! The heartbeat was good and strong at about 140 bpm. We got to see the all the “outside” features too. The little hands were so adorable and our ultrasound tech said it looked like our baby was using sign-language…of course it was…it was saying “I love you mama and daddy!” He/she is SO advanced already! We got to see a good shot of the arms, legs and feet even though the baby was being modest and keeping its legs crossed the entire time. Good thing, because we are still not finding out the sex! Baby got a clean bill of health; in fact all its systems and features are perfect! You should have seen its precious little lips…I definitely think they are Batia lips! I am so glad that we were able to get more pictures of our little one…they are so special to us.

I am still doing wonderful. I LOVE the second trimester so far. I am feeling the best that I have since January and I love it that I am finally “looking” pregnant. I did the inevitable and cleaned out my closet this past weekend. I took out all of my old things that no longer fit due to my growing belly and put them into storage. My side of the closet looks quite empty now! I am starting to feel like I am wearing the same few things over and over again…I guess that is what happens when nothing fits and only a few things are truly comfortable!

I am still exercising every day…I feel so much better about myself when I am active. I ran the Orlando Corporate 5K this past Thursday and I finished in 28:02. That was a minute behind my goal but I figured that was pretty good for being 4 ½ months pregnant! Our corporate co-ed team actually came in first place…that is pretty good seeing that I had the slowest time on the team! I have another 5K this weekend at Disney…this one will be more of a fun run seeing that I will be going back and forth up and down the course encouraging the girls in the running program that I’ve been volunteering with. I am very excited to experience this with them…it will be their first race ever! After that I think I will be finished with 2007-2008 road-race season. Think I will move on to swimming now that it is starting warm up here in Florida…the YMCA has a great lap pool that I am dying to try out…watch out…beached whale in a bikini! (Don’t worry, I would never post any pictures of that! Hee-Hee)