12 weeks

So, I'll try to post every week right now and hopefully this time, we get to week 39.

We have made it to the all important "12 week" mark. Meaning the risk of miscarriage has dropped dramatically. So Shrimp #2 is well on his or her way to term. As term is our next battle.

The most dramatic development this week: Reflexes. Your baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, his toes will curl, his eye muscles will clench, and his mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. His intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into his abdominal cavity about now, and his kidneys will begin excreting urine into his bladder. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over two inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.

I've been able to find the heart beat since week 10 (yay!) but not regularly. Shrimp does like to hide from me on a regular basis. But I always find them again. I hope we don't like to play hide and seek as much as Elisa did though.

So you may be wondering what our "plan of action" is. Well, if you remember back a few months ago when I was ranting all about Makena and the p17 shot? So I will be placed on the p17 but have already made it clear to my provider that I do NOT want the Makena version. Since they are still making the compounded versions, I have that right. Starting at week 14, I will begin receiving these shots weekly until week 37. I will be monitored much more closely and even will be receiving cervix length checks (I'm assuming by ultrasound, I haven't asked the method yet) beginning at week 18. They are doing this just to make sure an incompetent cervix wasn't the cause of Elisa's PTL. I've become familiar with the local perinatal group who will take on my care if I do end up in pre-term labor again and they will be consulting with my OB. Don't worry, I did scout out a new OB well in advance to embarking on this journey. And they are stating that unless I am contracting, there is NO reason to take Shrimp at week 37 and that I can go as long as 39 weeks. I'm hoping for every week and 39 weeks would be awesome! So that's how it stands at the moment.

In other news, we just returned home from an AWESOME vacation.







Elisa is a GREAT traveler. She handled each new place with ease and slept fairly well for the most part. Only had trouble with her one night, really. All the others, she adjusted to the time change and the different surroundings with ease. We drove up to Michigan and saw my aunts and uncles from my mom's side and then returned home through St. Louis where we saw two old friends and even stopped to visit the zoo. It was a BLAST and we are still trying to recover from all the excitement. I think we'll need a week to get our energy back. I'm glad we planned it to have at least a weekend to recover before getting back to the grind.