i think its time to buy some new (maternity) clothes and also get a haircut! i am thinking, um, going short :)

any thoughts?

wow, i cant believe it im going into my 3rd month and almost into my 2nd trimester, but if you want to get technical im only 10 weeks and 6 days today.

Here is the lowdown on baby -
the baby's vital organs are now formed and functioning - whoa baby! oh and the best part? the risk of defects decreases this week as the baby becomes less susceptible to outside influences. YAY!

the baby's ears are moving toward their proper place this week and the fingernail and toenail beds are beginning to form. unfortunately the baby's head is nearly as big as the rest of his body, lets hope he doesnt take after his dad. just kidding cw.

While testes or ovaries are completely formed now, we won't be able to see the baby's gender for a few more weeks. sorry guys.

At our first ultrasound we, really it was cw, who got to see the little gummy bear move around. and nope i havent felt the baby move or anything - still too early for that, and from cw's post, you all know that "movement" i feel is probably just gas.

the baby now weighs a third of an ounce, about the same as two small, single serving packets of sugar, and is about 2 inches long, about the length of one of those sugar packets. weird huh?

and to this date, i have gained only 6 lbs. thank god. still wearing pre-pregnancy clothes but soon, very soon, i will need to bring on the elastic!

oh and thank you so much Grandma Linda, Getch, Tita Sandra & Tito Matt for the gifts we received this week. i guess we will have to get to it and start making that 2nd room into the nursery.

im off to an early hike tomorrow morning with amy and roz. im pretty sure that cw is glad ill be out of the house and "exercising".

this is from the 25th so that makes her 7 weeks in this photo. we haven't been taking many of these because every time i try to, Cherlyn says, "no, that's not the baby, i'm just bloated." so if you want more pictures, bug her about it.

one thing that's great is that she farts.
i fart a lot. i've been called "The Gasmaster". maybe there's something wrong with me. maybe it's because i'm a psuedovegetarian. i don't know, maybe i just need to take some Beano. anyway, Cherlyn's always been pretty cool about me being a farter. often she laughs. i think she used to play fart games with her Dad and siblings when she was younger. so that's wonderful. even better now that she farts herself.
i think farting is necessary, even crucial. if you hold it in, you're just going to feel worse. let it out; bust ass and be free.
whenever she farts, we high-five. when i started trying to congratulate her, she was skeptical and annoyed. she just wanted to fart in peace without any sort of celebration. she's warming up to the idea now, or at least she's acquiesced to participating in the high-fivery. maybe next time i post a picture, it will be of us high-fiving after she farts.

everything was there -and the most important part = the flutter of the heart, beating so fast - as it is supposed to. yay! wow, i'm really pregnant guys. with seeing the heart beat, our miscarriage rate drops down to 1%.

charles got to see more of our gummy bear than i did, with its arms and legs moving about and what will be the umbilical cord - or something like that. i dont know, but i'm sure he'll tell you what he saw.

1. umbilical cord 2. right hand 3. nail fields 4. nose 5. mucous plugs, right and left nostrils 6. fused right eyelids 7. nasal bridge 8. forehead 9. fused left eyelids

Facts:

• The 9-week fetus can grasp an object, move the head forward and back, open and close the jaw, move the tongue, sigh, and stretch.

• By 9 weeks after fertilization, nerve receptors in the face, the palms of the hands, and the soles of the feet can sense light touch.

• Between 9 and 10 weeks body weight increases by over 75%.

• Bone formation is underway in most bones by 10 weeks.

• The corpus callosum, which connects the left and right sides of the brain, begins to develop at this time.