Baby Development

Age of Fetus — 9 weeks

Your belly continues to grow outward. To support you and the baby from this week on, you will experience a 40-50% total increase in blood volume (most of the gain is in the liquid called plasma and not the red blood cell count).

Other changes that are happening:

* Your baby's head now makes up more than half of its entire length.
* Although weight will fluctuate a great deal, your average gain in the second trimester is about 1 pound a week.
* The baby's skin, though very thin and transparent, is forming and becoming thicker.

Baby's Size this week: About 1.5 to 2.5 inches
Right now your baby is about the size of a lemon.

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I am a little confused by this. I went for my ultrasound last week, and I called them up on Friday to get the results. My Dr wasn't terribly clear on the whole thing, and told me that if we go by the ultrasound, I would be 9 weeks along. If we go by the first day of my last period, I would be almost 12 weeks along. (11 weeks and a couple of days) Isn't that typically what they go on? I understand about the 2 week gap, so if we go by the first day of my last period, then this coming week would mark my 12th week of pregnancy, making the baby about 10 weeks. Does that seem right, or am I dong this completely wrong? I'm going in to see him tomorrow regarding a previous infection, so I'll ask him then what's REALLY going on, and maybe he'd best refer me to an OBGYN.

My jeans are continuing to feel tighter and tighter, particularly after I've eaten, and EVERYONE has commented on how much bigger my boobs have gotten. It's great to see they're paying attention to SOMETHING. I'm not showing yet, but I'm getting to the point where I'm feeling full throughout the day, so much so that I'm not always eating when I should and it's only after the nausea kicks in that I realize I haven't eaten and hurry off to do so. Thankfully that doesn't happen frequently - I think maybe three times so far - and I'm generally eating 6 smallish meals per day, and tons of apples. (And now oranges)

Ladies are still wicked itchy. I'm so looking forward to when THAT stops. Honestly, it's driving me insane. I stopped using the Hydrocortisone cream because it was drying them out and making them MUCH itchier, but I am still using the DermaVeen moisturizer which really does help. I've also read about a vinegar therapy that is supposed to be really amazing and stops the itching almost right away. I'm almost ready to try that.

My eyelids have gotten itchier again as well. They had actually stopped itching for a week or so, and have flared up again, as has my neck. It looks as though I have tiny patches of exzema on my neck and eyelids, and under my left arm. My stomache has been itching on and off, and I have cocoa butter to help combat that but jeez . . . I'm so sick of the itching!!!

I'm not sleeping well anymore either. I bought the What to Expect When You're Expecting book and according to that, starting from next month I shouldn't be laying on my belly or my back to sleep. I've been practising not doing that, and it's really bloody difficult. D woke me up last night and told me to roll over because I had been sleeping on my stomache. I'm trying to get in the habit of sleeping on my sides, but it's not at all comfortable and I find I'm waking up with an aching back and hips. To combat this, last night I ended up sleeping with a pillow between my legs, and while that effectively stopped me from getting up numerous times to go pee through the night, it didn't really alleviate the ache in my back or hips. I'm a little unsure as to what to do about THAT now.

Otherwise, the pregnancy is going very well and I have no major complaints (save the itching). I'm not experiencing any cravings per se, at least not for any one type of food. I find that I'm going through stages of "three" with certain foods, however. For example, I really really wanted those Fillet-o-Fish burgers from McD's, and I wanted those three days in a row. Then it was meat pies for three days. Then spinach and cheese rolls. It's all very unusual for me, but I'm flowing with it the best I can. I figure that if I just listen to what my body wants, I'll feed it accordingly and all will be well - unless my body starts asking for really weird stuff like clams, in which case I'll forcefully IGNORE it.