Week 9!

Baby size: A cherry!

Some say prune, some say kumquat, either way, growing like a weed! :))

How I feel about being pregnant: All of the emotions. All of the time.
What I miss about pre-pregnancy life: Hot Yoga. It's SO freaking amazing. However, raising your core temp past 102 is a super no-no in pregnancy. Guess it's room temperature yoga for me for the next 8 months.
Symptoms: Pregnancy is gross. That's all. Just anything gross that can happen, it does. All the time. Rude.
Food Cravings: All I ever want to eat is pizza rolls, Mexican food, and anything watermelon flavored (particularly if it's Jolly Rancher). Not all at the same time, obviously. I feel like we are constantly out of pizza rolls and it's really depressing, but that's probably because I eat them so much. lol. I'm also in love with Watermelon Sour Punch Straws. Like I would marry them if that were possible. Haha. Mostly I'm just super susceptible to suggestion. If you mention something, most likely I will want to eat it. It's going to be a loooong 7 months. :-P
What I'm most excited about: Baby is growing fingernails!!! I don't know why I find this particularly exciting, but I do. I'm super proud! :)
Something I've done to prepare for baby: A few years ago, I read this story/article (the more I think about it, the more I think it was from a Chicken Soup book) about this woman who wrote letters to her unborn child (and I think continued writing them periodically throughout her life). Then, when her daughter got to that irrationally hating her parents and thinking they hate her phase, she gave her daughter the notebook full of letters, that way she would know how much she'd always loved her. I absolutely LOVED the idea and have been planning to do it myself since then. I bought my notebook last week (which Shane made fun of me for b/c I spend a disproportionate amount of time looking at school/office supplies) and wrote my first letter. I can't really put into words how I've spent my entire life waiting for this moment and making all my decisions with a child in mind who wouldn't exist for years to come. I'll try, though. If there's one thing I want my children to know, it's that they have always and will always be loved beyond words.
Special moment: I got to hold my ridiculously cute god daughter for the first time! She's been in the NICU for the last 5 weeks due to making her appearance 7 weeks too early, and they only allowed grandparents to visit. LAME. I can't wait to watch her and baby DePute grow up together. They are totally going to be best friends. If he's a boy, he's the only one her daddy will ever approve of, and if she's a girl, I think Shane and Jeremy will be spending a lot of time at the shooting range. haha.

How Baby is Developing (from BabyCenter):
Though he's barely the size of a kumquat — a little over an inch or so long, crown to bottom — and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce, your baby has now completed the most critical portion of his development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature.
He's swallowing fluid and kicking up a storm. Vital organs — including his kidneys, intestines, brain, and liver (now making red blood cells in place of the disappearing yolk sac) — are in place and starting to function, though they'll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy.
If you could take a peek inside your womb, you'd spot minute details, like tiny nails forming on fingers and toes (no more webbing) and peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin.
In other developments: Your baby's limbs can bend now. His hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over his heart, and his feet may be long enough to meet in front of his body. The outline of his spine is clearly visible through translucent skin, and spinal nerves are beginning to stretch out from his spinal cord. Your baby's forehead temporarily bulges with his developing brain and sits very high on his head, which measures half the length of his body. From crown to rump, he's about 1 1/4 inches long. In the coming weeks, your baby will again double in size — to nearly 3 inches.



What baby looks like (sort of)... SO CUTE!





It's kind of hard to see a difference, but it's a little bigger! I'm not sure why my skin looks completely different considering it was the same camera, same lighting, and same skin, but oh well.