Almost through the first trimester

According to some books the first trimester is over at the end of the twelfth week, other books claim that it’s not until the end of the 13th or 14th week. Either way, we are almost there!! Today marks the 12th week of our pregnancy. It is crazy how fast time has already gone by. Our next appointment is in less than two weeks on December 7th. We’re not sure what fun stuff I’ll be subject to at the next appointment, but it will be right around the end of the 13th week so there may be a chance that they try to hear the heartbeat with the Doppler machine. We have seen the tiny heart beating away, but we have yet to hear it. I’m hoping we’ll hear it soon!

So far I still fit into most of all my regular clothes, although I think by Christmas I will be showing at least a little bit. It will be nice to show a little because right now it’s all still very surreal! If we didn’t have the sonograms from our last two appointments I don’t know if it would feel quite real yet! At the end of the week Jered and I are headed to Florida for my cousin Jason’s wedding. We’re looking forward to getting out of town for a few days. We’ll take plenty of pictures and maybe post a few here.

Happy Thanksgiving

We have plenty to be thankful for this year. I’m almost into my twelfth week- out of that first trimester worry zone and into the second trimester energy boost (I hope, I hope!). I have a great husband who is committed to making our little family the best it can be. We live in a really nice house, have great neighbors, friends and family. Our pets, despite being a lot of work, make us laugh almost every day. In short, we live a charmed life.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Latest picture of Uni

Another fabulous shot of Uni- this time you can tell which end is which (the head is to the right). Getting bigger by the day, we’re already over an inch- this was taken a week ago.

Beginning of a fetus!

Today marks the day when our little embryo turns into a fetus! I don’t know if anything magical actually happened today, but all of the books say that today is the day and that from now until the day the baby is born it is officially a fetus. According to our books this marks the end of the most critical part of the baby’s development- so all of the major important parts have developed, now we just have to grow the rest of the baby and fatten him or her up.

I’ve been super tired this week and am hoping that in the next few weeks I’ll get some of my energy back- I don’t like sleeping 11 hours a night, especially not when I have plenty of end of semester stuff to get done.

Spider-sense is tingling

Today, Esther and I went to Target, initially just to look. Esther decided that we should start registering for baby “stuff”. While she was getting the registry setup and the barcode gun, I was left to wander in the light pink, blue and yellow sea.

I was filled with a odd sense of being overwhelmed. I read a post from Rands earlier today which described my situation to a T.

[I] see the world as a system which, given enough time and effort, is completely knowable. This is a fragile illusion that your nerd has adopted, but it’s a pleasant one that gets your nerd through the day.

This is the problem that I am facing. The whole “baby” thing, and “being a parent”, those are two things which I have no clue on. It is not the “Will I screw my child up?” question. I think I’ve got that down, or if not, would I be able to tell? The real questions I have are things like:

• When does a baby need a pacifier, if it even needs one?
• Does everything need to be sterilized/bleach/sanitized?
• How does one hold a baby?
• How does one change a baby’s diaper?

You may laugh at this, but the last time I held or changed a diaper was the plastic training doll in Red Cross babysitter training.

The only thing I know is that I have an amazing wife / mother of my child and that with her, there will be nothing that we can’t over come together.

Rhesus Monkeys

No, not the monkey, the rhesus factor- it has something to do with blood. Well, I found out today that I’m Rh negative. The doctor told me it’s no big deal unless Jered is Rh positive and our baby turns out to be Rh positive which is likely. It’s still not too big of a deal because they have a shot they will give me at 28 weeks and again just before or after delivery to ensure that I don’t build up antibodies against any future Rh positive babies.

I’m a little confused by this because I thought Rh factor had to do with whether or not your blood type was positive or negative. All my life my mom told me I was A+, which I assumed meant that I was also Rh positive. Of course, I had my last blood test when I was about an hour old so who knows! I think I’ll have to talk with the doctor about this because I’m a little confused- maybe Rh factor and positive/negative blood types aren’t really related at all, or maybe they are. Either way, though, I was told there is nothing to worry about.

And…they did another ultrasound to try and pin down a more accurate due date, and it is amazing to see how much the baby has grown already- Uni is nearly twice as big as on the last ultrasound. I’ll post pictures over the weekend! If anyone has information about Rh factors and blood types, let us know!

Double Mac’s

Today was a Mac-filled day for us Benoits!
I spent the morning working on statistics homework and by the time it was time for me to leave for a meeting in Williamsburg I hadn’t had time to pack a lunch and decided to head to McDonalds for a little Big Mac’ing. I haven’t had a Big Mac in probably a year- and it was delicious. The idea of eating a Big Mac is a little disturbing to me seeing as I was a vegetarian for a few months before getting pregnant, but there was something about all that salty beefy goodness that just seemed right today. That being said, I don’t think I’ll be having another Big Mac for a long long time- I could almost feel my arteries tighten!

So what then is the other Mac I alluded to in the title of this post? Well, Jered was in charge of dinner tonight and he is in the process of creating his very own repertoire of dad foods. Tonight’s creation was called Monster Mac- a delicious mixture of mac’ n cheese, broccoli, peas and meatless meatballs. It was impressively orange and green and the meatballs looked like eyeballs. It’s sweet that Jered is already thinking of fun meals for our family

Some name ideas

What do you all think of these name combinations we’ve thought up?
Girls Names-
Ella Flynn
Sofia Wren
Zoe Berlin
Noelle Aspen
Boys Names- (we’ll name a boy after my dad)
John Finley
John Milo
John Merlin

Prenate DHA aka the biggest vitamins ever created

At our appointment Monday the nurse gave me some samples of some prescription vitamins that contain DHA and extra folic acid. I was written a prescription (which I have yet to have filled, still living on the free gigantic samples). The thing about these vitamins, they are huge! I can’t believe they make pills so big- each one measures almost an inch long and it’s a strange teal color. Thank goodness they’re coated!  I take my monster pill every morning because of the benefits that the packaging claims:

Enhances Cognitive Development (who wouldn’t want that?)
Improves Visual Accuity (because I want an eagle-eyed baby)
May maximize fetal growth and development (grow baby grow!)
Enriches quality of breast milk (we drink organic, why shouldn’t the baby?)
May contribute to advancement of childhood mental development (how this is different from cognitive development I do not know)

Sounds pretty good, huh? Gotta go take my horse pill!