My Pregnancy This Week: 16 weeks

How your baby's growing: At 4 1/2 inches long (head to bottom) and 3 1/2 ounces, your baby is about the size of an avocado. In the next three weeks, she'll go through a tremendous growth spurt, though, doubling her weight and adding inches to her length. Her lower limbs are much more developed now. Her head is more erect than it has been, and her eyes have moved toward the front of her head. Your baby's ears are close to their final position, too. Some of her more advanced body systems are working, including her circulatory system and urinary tract. Her heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, circulating her total blood volume through her body many times. (By the end of your pregnancy, this will increase to about 190 quarts.) The patterning of her scalp has begun, though her hair isn't recognizable yet. Although closed, her eyes are moving (slowly), and she's even started growing toenails. (http://www.babycenter.com)

I was 16 weeks on Sunday and I even let J take a picture of my expanding tummy. I have had lots of "I can't believe your showing!" comments this last week. Although, I am not sure why, afterall, this is my third child, you guys! At first, I kept trying to tell people that bump they were seeing wasn't really the baby--just what I have to show from my last pregnancy that I never got rid of (I mean I was only 6 months post-partum, friends!) or perhaps a big meal I had eaten a few hours earlier. I quickly realized, no one was listening to my "that's just lack of muscle and extra skin" remarks and am now embracing the fact that I am indeed showing something. I also left out the paragraph from BabyCenter that talked about how everybody must be asking about how wonderful I look and how the "glow of pregnancy" is real...am I hearing those comments?...yeah, not so much. And how I must be "enjoying myself more, too, now that my hormones have stabilized and nausea has eased up". Oh, the lucky ones...

I have had a few glimpses of life without nausea. A have had a few days where I would have moments or maybe even an hour of feeling pretty normal (hooray!), but then it is always followed by after lunch, afternoon, evening and night which are pretty much a downward spiral into yuckiness.

Except for feeling sicky, we had a great time visiting my parents in Richmond. Ley was able to see his first snow (something that he very well could have gone many more years without seeing here on the coast!) as it did appear the morning before Easter. When my Mom told him to look out the window (after it had snowed), she asked him what was different and his response was, "Where are the leaves?". It didn't last long, of course, but Leighton enjoyed playing in it with his Grandad. Easter was wonderful, although we missed having Daddy there. Leighton had what seemed to be a fever virus for about 3 of the days we were there, but it didn't slow him down too much! We also took a trip to the CMOR or Children's Museum of Richmond, the day before we left town. It was a big hit! Fun water tables, art rooms, apple picking, and crawling in a mouth (yes, a mouth--and this was Ley's favorite--it burped when you entered...lovely) Of course, both my parents and I forgot to bring our cameras, so all I have are not-so-high-quality camera phone pics. In fact, I think I took a total of 5 photographs on my camera the whole time we were visiting. The grandparents were taking so many that I just didn't put out the extra energy :)! SO, I have nothing to show for our trip yet, but hopefully will sometime soon. Thanks for having us up, ANne and Grandad and taking such good care of us, again. We wish you weren't so far away...

I do have pics of Ley's Easter party at school and a couple of other random shots.