What's Wee Up To This Month? Installment Five

Month Five -- Weeks 17-20

Size -- Wee transitions from fruit-sized to vegetable-sized and then back to fruit-sized this month as (s)he goes from pear to avocado to baking potato to watermelon slice.

Development -- Wee's cartilage will harden to bone this month (which is why Wee encourages me to eat so much cheese!). Of course, eating all that cheese will also be useful as Wee starts collecting some fat -- that's my baby!! Gonna be a fat, fat baby. By the end of the month, the bones and nerve endings in Wee's ears will be developed enough for Wee to hear my voice and heartbeat, which means Wee will be able to hear your voices, too, but that's no reason to bend down and address my stomach when you have something to say since I can't promise that my kickboxing training won't make itself known. Another reason not to get too close to my stomach with your face is that Wee might try to kick you him/herself, but I won't feel Wee's kicks for another few weeks. Also, Wee grows some vocal cords this month but won't be making any use of them until there's some air available. Wee's brain might be the busiest part of Wee this month as it develops millions of motor neurons.

Appearance -- Wee will be growing finger/toenails this month and already has a fully formed nose (hopefully Wee is not a prenatal nose-picker). If you do disregard my advice from above and choose to bend down and talk to my belly, I will instruct Wee to raise his/her eyebrows in disapproval since (s)he will be able to do that soon. Overall, Wee probably looks pretty well rested this month since (s)he is sleeping 18 hours per day. Again -- that's my baby!!

Stay tuned! This month we'll find out if Wee is a He Wee or a She Wee -- ultrasound on December 21.

Rachel's belly at 16 weeks

Maternity Pants

Well, the come-and-go belly ended last week when I realized that more coming than going was taking place and that I had button imprints on my stomach no matter what pants I was wearing. I got my first few pairs of maternity pants last night and am loving the pair I have on today. A girl I work with had her second baby earlier this year, and she said to go for the maternity pants as soon as your regular pants stop feeling good. She said she waited a while and suffered through her regular pants with the first baby but switched over to maternity pants much sooner with the second baby (since she already had them) and was so much more comfortable. Odd that I look more pregnant with pants that fit than I did with pants that didn't fit, but thus ends the constant debate about whether to unfasten the button or keep it hooked.

One funny story about the shopping... Chris and I just went to Target to see how maternity clothes even work (turns out, at Target anyway, that they're still numbered the way non-maternity pants are so they sort-of fit your butt and legs and then just add elastic to the waistband). Some of the pants I tried on still had buttons/zippers in the front and then elastic on the sides, and some were nothing but elastic -- just 6 inches of stretchiness at the top of my pants, plus some faux zipper covers so it's not so obvious that I have no real zipper. They're awesome, and Chris is a little worried that I'll never go back to regular pants even after the baby is born and I'm normal sized again. :) When I was trying my pants on, there was a lady in there trying on jeans. After we passed each other a few times (her on her way to the 3-sided mirror, me on my way to get Chris' input), she finally asked my opinion on her jeans. She wanted to know if they were too small, so I weighed in and helped her decide. I was back out modeling for Chris (who laughed the first time I came out and showed him my waistband, but then stopped when he saw that the fitting room attendant lady was about to smack him for laughing at the woman carrying his child -- don't worry -- it didn't hurt my feelings because they really are funny looking) when the jeans lady walked out with her choice. I happened to be showing off some maternity jeans (which I got -- oh, yeah!) and she said, "Those are cute!" Chris and I both thought that she was about to ask where I found them (to which I would have replied, "Not anywhere in the section where you were shopping"), but then she changed her mind and went with her original choice.

So now I have pants that I don't want to unbutton when I sit down. I tried a few shirts, too, but it's too early for them -- just focusing on shirts that are long enough to cover all my elastic for now.

What's Wee Up To This Month? Installment Four

Month Four -- Weeks 13-16

Size -- Still growing -- now from a lime to a lemon to a really big lemon to a pear. Wee will be a dense little pear, though, because (s)he will weigh about as much as a grapefruit at the end of this month.

Development -- Wee will finish off his/her intestines, kidneys, liver, and pacreas this month (not as cute as hearts and brains, but just as vital).

Appearance -- Wee's eyes and ears will move into the right places. The eyes are off on the sides like a frog's, and there's no telling where the ears have been all this time. Wee also will gets some fingerprints, so Wee's life of crime can be well documented. Wee's arms will lengthen this month so they look proportionally "right" compared to the rest of Wee's body, and Wee's hands are now half an inch long, which is about the length of one of my fingernails from the cuticle to the end. Wee's legs are longer than his/her arms, and Wee will soon be able to move all of his/her joints (not necessarily as intended, but they will all move somehow). Big appearance news : Wee grows eyebrows this month!

Rachel's belly at 12 weeks

What's Wee Up To This Month? Installment Three

Month Three -- Weeks 9-12

Size -- This month Wee graduates from being compared to beans to being compared to fruits as (s)he grows from the size of a kidney bean to the size of a lime (passing through the grape, kumquate, and strawberry phases along the way).

Development -- Big developments this month -- lungs and brains and the heart are the new organs (Wee could fill all the roles from the "Wizard of Oz" now!). Also, Wee will end the month with all his/her joints.

Appearance -- Wee's tail will vanish (glad I didn't mention that until it was already gone?), which is fantastic news for Wee's cuteness. Arms/legs will lengthen and hands/feet will keep growing, too, but fingers/toes are webbed until the end of the month. Wee's head is still ridiculously oversized, but Wee's eyelids are developing this month, and Wee's ears almost look like ears. By the end of the month, Wee will even have little tooth buds!

Rachel's belly at 8 weeks

What's Wee Up To This Month? Installment Two

Month Two -- Weeks 5-8

Size -- In month two, Wee will grow from being a blastocyst (don't try to imagine how big that is -- I think that's a kind, scientific word for "too small to measure yet") to the size of a kidney bean, checking in as a sesame seed, a lentil, and a blueberry (almost fruit-sized!).

Development -- Wee's heart will start beating this month, and Wee will take all my energy to grow a brain and a spinal cord. I don't mind.

Appearance -- Eyes (dark spots for now), nostrils (more dark spots), ears (just holes for now), and arms/legs (including fingers and toes!) start growing this month, too.

Rachel's belly at 4 weeks

What's Wee Up To This Month? Installment One

Month One -- Weeks 1-4

I'm interested in what Wee's up to every week, but I'll consolidate from weeks to months for your sakes...

Honestly, Wee was up to nothing this month. A very easy month for both of us!

Baby Wee has a TotSite!

The front page from the TotSite (http://www.totsites.com/tot/babywee; password is "Baby Wee")...

Thanks for visiting Baby Wee's first website! We've been talking about "When we have a wee tot..." for a while now, so we're calling our little baby the "Wee Tot," naturally, which has been shortened to "Wee." We're going to call Wee "The Higlet" once (s)he debuts and might just put that on the birth certificate if we get asked "So have you chosen a name?" too many times. Consider yourselves warned...

Wee is due May 15, 2008. Our wedding anniversary is May 17, so we do realize that this little person will trump all romantic anniversary celebrations for the next 20 or so years. That's okay -- I'm sure that kiddie birthday parties are at least equally as fun as drinking rum drinks on Antigua, zip-lining in Panama, sun-bathing on Margarita Island (Venezuela), or touring Nicaragua. At least.

As you have time, read up on Wee's life in the Journal section. Please feel free to add comments to the journal entries or just general comments in the Guestbook section -- Wee would love to hear from you (that's Wee -- the baby, not We -- Chris and Rachel). I bet the first comment Wee gets is on how small the font size is, no? You can also see some pictures of the mom's expanding guts in the Photos section -- yes, Rachel's bare belly is now on the internet.

There's really no telling how often this site will be updated (at least once a month and probably more frequently once the "nesting" phase begins), so just bookmark it and check back occasionally. If you have any suggestions for info to include, please contact the "site administrator" at rachel.h.higgins@gmail.com. :)