Orange you glad I didn't say pineapple??

I'm not! I love pineapple!! In fact I can't seem to get enough of it these days. Regardless of my new obsession with pineapple (and cream cheese) our baby is the size of a navel orange today. I cannot get over how fast it is growing! 15 weeks already??? It seems like yesterday Robbie and I were staring at the pee stick saying, "no way. already??" We are blessed to have this opportunity and the excitement has definitely not worn off!

So, we go back to the OB this week and I am really excited. During the first and second trimesters (until the second is about 1/2 over anyway) we see our OB every 4 weeks. That means an entire month goes by without me being able to hear a medical professional, other than fellow RN's and general surgeons, tell me everything is going well. 4 weeks we have to wait between appointments to hear our baby's heart beat again!! Those 4 weeks do go by fast but they are agonizing. One thing that makes/will make those 4 weeks go by a little easier is fetal movement. I think we have it. It is hard to tell but my rule is if I feel the same weird movement 3 times then it is fetal movement. Now, it obviously cannot be something I have felt before - aka gas. This has happened. I have felt the "fluttering" people mention. It feels like a little vibration to me. It doesn't happen often but it provides a little reassurance. Last night, while I was eating some pineapple, I felt a different movement - like someone was flicking the inside of my lower abdomen. This only occurred twice so I am counting it as gas for now. I am hoping it reaches my "3 times" rule!!

You can rent on the Internet home dopplers that allow you to listen to the baby's heartbeat whenever you want. I think this takes things to a level of crazy I don't need to go. I can doppler pulses on feet, carotids, brachials, femorals, etc. But, I don't know about babies and I'm not going to try. What if you find it one day and can't find it the next because the baby has moved into a weird position - do know how freaked out I would be?? Please, I will leave it up to nature and my 4 week appointments.

One thing pregnancy can make you do is really think about the creation of life, the human body, and how the gestation period prepares you for the birth and life of your child. Let me give you some examples - some graphic and TMI but I warned you on week 7. 1.) As you progress in pregnancy your boobs grow, right? But did you know that your nipples get darker. This isn't because its cool to have a tan, it's because it makes them easier for the baby to see! NEAT. 2.) Every night, like clockwork I wake up every two hours to pee, literally every two hours. It sounds like this is preparing me to wake up frequently when the baby arrives! The quality of my sleep is much different now too. I wake up to the slightest noise - another way to prepare me for when the baby comes! IT'S CRAZY! 3.) During the first trimester many women, including myself, have heavy food aversions to the foods that can potentially harbor dangerous bacteria for your growing baby - raw meat, raw fish, weird fruit, processed cheese (not really a bacteria grower but gross). I think this is NEAT! 4.) Just the simple way your body knows to adapt to the growing baby is pretty amazing. This process is pretty amazing if you really sit down and think about it. Oh one more, I was sick this week and I assumed if I was sick my baby probably is sick so I freaked out and called my OB - we are on a first name basis BTW. She said, "your baby is extremely well protected and only you are feeling sick". That's weird, right??

Anyways, so this week we received our first out of state shipment of baby gear!!! This package is from Nana - my mom!! Along with some old childhood friends she sent some baby clothes and my old baby blankets. It was so nice reminiscing and going through all the stuff - I posted some pics!! We, okay really Robbie, began the process of tackling the baby room. I have posted some before pics. Please notice the lack of all but one, significantly smaller, bookcase. Pay no attention to the fact that this bookcase is holding all Horror books - Stephen King and Anne Rice. I am working on this :)!

Okay, so next week we will have more belly pics and an OB update. I am hoping this visit we will schedule our anatomy US - you know what that means???!!! We will find out if it is a boy or a girl and reveal our top name pics!!