Baby Update

Sorry, no ultrasound pics! I may have the courage to post a "belly shot" sometime soon, still working that one out in my head...

We had our monthly appointment yesterday with our midwife. I just *love* that hour! We are so happy to have a midwife, not only are the appointments a whole hour long, be we get to spend a lot of time talking, asking questions, bouncing ideas off her, getting feedback and such. It is so wonderful to have such an interactive relationship.

I am officially 17 weeks, 1 day pregnant today and baby is growing well. We guesstimate (based on the last ultrasound and projected growth for this far along) that Baby is now over 5" long from crown to rump (head to cute little butt!) and weighs in at around 5 ounces! Baby can hear noises outside of the womb now too and is growing finger and toe nails. The heartbeat was, of course, amazing to hear too! It was going between the 140s and the 150's since Baby was moving around quite a bit. I think that she was using a doppler or fetalscope to hear Baby's heartrate, almost right away there was this weird static-scratching sound and she said, "that's the baby moving!" and we heard that sound several more times and the heartrate would change too. She told us that it was great to see the change in the heartrate because it means that the heart is working like it's supposed to, if it stays too constant it could be a sign of less-than-great things.

I also asked her for some recommended readings and she gave me a book to borrow for the month called The Attachment Parenting Book - A Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Baby by Dr. William Sears and Martha Sears R.N. They are an incredible couple who have raised 8 children and are really loving, caring "experts" in the baby field. I have read a few of their books and am most impressed that they keep saying, Mom and Dad are the best experts on their own baby. Above all, you know your child better than anyone and any expert or book. Trust your instincts, love your baby and learn about your child. I like that message!

Tomorrow I will post a list of some of the books I have read and just love! Poor K has quite a pile of reading material piling up on his side of the bed. Last nite I offered to put them in what I consider priority order and mark the parts I feel are most important. I am blessed with wicked fast reading (Thanks Dad for forcing me to learn to speed read! It's paying off!) so I am able to get through all the quality books I can get my hands on right now.