It's been a long and bumpy road, but I'm now 15 weeks pregnant, a full WEEK into my second trimester!! My due date is February 3rd. For you carnaval fans - yes, my due date is the EXACT DAY OF CARNAVAL, 2007!! As fun as it is to think I'll just paint a big samba drum on my giant belly and conga my way into labor, realistically this probably means I won't be going this year. Sigh. I wonder if they'll let me wear pasties in the delivery room? Haha - just kidding! It would be a cool coincidence to have the baby on Carnaval, but of course it could be before or after. Kearson's birthday is a few days before, Groundhog's day is the day before and I'm hoping to avoid Feb 4th for Kearson's sake - it's Superbowl Sunday. We jokingly tell people if it's on Groundhog's day, we're naming the baby "Punxsutawney"! And now, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, some extremely early baby pictures!!
Our baby is the result of many years of fertility treatments, culminating in 4 rounds of "in vitro fertilization" (IVF). This first picture is of the embryo 5 days after fertilization, just before it was tranfered to my uterus to grow. At this stage it is called a blastocyst and has less than 100 cells! Only 10 days later we found out it had "worked" via a blood test. However, it was still a waiting game to see if the baby would "stick".
Within about 4 weeks after transferring the embryo, we got to see and hear the heartbeat! At this age the baby's heartbeat is still slow (around 115 beats per minute), but will hopefully pick up speed over the next week as the heart gets stronger. The baby in this picture is the little blob attached to the upper right of the black circle. I was officially 6 weeks 5 days pregnant at the time of this photo.
By 7 weeks 6 days - about a week later, the heartrate had increased to 153 BPM - a very good sign! The blob is bigger now, but still not too recognizable as a human baby.
At 9 weeks 4 days, about 2 weeks later, the embryo finally starts to look like an embryo! You can now clearly distinguish the round head end of the blob from the tail end. The heart was still getting stronger (167 bpm) and the baby was moving all around on this day! This was the longest I'd ever been pregnant so we were getting more optimistic at this point, but decided to wait until our second trimester to announce our news.
Finally, 3 weeks later at 12 weeks 4 days, you can really see the baby taking shape. It is in profile here, reclining with its back against the right wall looking straight ahead with feet extended to the left. If you look closely you can see the nose and upper and lower jaw. Also, check out its tiny hand raised next to it's head - looks like she/he's giving us a little wave! :)
Hope you enjoyed the photos and that I didn't get too detailed for some of you. Anyway, we're just overjoyed and looking forward to the next few months of excitement, planning and watching the baby (and my belly) grow. Our most heartfelt thanks to everyone who has hoped, prayed, worried, laughed and cried with us over the last several years. We can't wait for our little one to meet our amazing family and friends!