14 weeks: baby is the size of an orange

I did my hair and makeup this week, can you tell? I felt too fancy for just a t-shirt and jeans so I added a necklace, too. Usually Evan is behind the camera on these but he had an early morning meeting so I was left to my own devices and I used the timer on the camera.

I get my information on baby's development from a number of sources, and this week they are conflicting. Baby is either 3.5" long or 5" long. Either way, he or she is also growing peach-fuzz like hair all over his or her body called lanugo. I have never heard that term in my life before today. Liver, spleen, and kidneys are all starting to function now.

I think I can say with confidence that my nausea is gone. YIPPEE!!!! Boy what a difference in my quality of life that makes! Hopefully I'll be getting more energy soon, too. Currently still sleeping 10+ hours/night and taking an occasional daytime nap on the weekends. I've been feeling some little aches and pains in my abdomen which I suspect is round ligament pain as baby grows and my ligaments stretch. I can feel my uterus now, and so can Evan, it's firm and round like a little exercise ball low in my belly. It's not what you see in the photo. That bulge is really my guts being pushed up and out by my growing uterus underneath. Sounds gross but that's what happens. Oh, and my digestive system is operating veeeerrrryyy sloooooowly these days so there's bloat. I wish there was a song about constipation like there is about diarrhea. Maybe I'll write one. The round ligament pain, feeling my uterus, the beginnings of a belly, these are all very cool experiences!

In other news, I went to my first prenatal yoga class on Saturday morning. I got a gift certificate to Yoga Shala from my mother-in-law for Christmas (thanks, Mary!). I'm pretty freaking psyched about this class. There were about 15 other women ranging from as far along as me (two others) all the way to due in a couple weeks. I've been feeling huge (fat) lately and being in this class made me realize I'm actually still pretty tiny. The yoga instructor actually talked about body image in the very beginning of class and it felt like she was talking directly to me. She was telling us to practice kind thoughts toward ourselves, like instead of thinking we're fat replace the thought with my body is growing a human being and it's amazing. That helped. It was a pretty easy class and I didn't break a sweat at all. In the past I've taken more of an athletic style of yoga but that's apparently not what this is. It's focused all on having a healthy pregnancy and preparing yourself for labor. She kept saying things like, "And this pose will help with contractions when you're in labor." At one point we were instructed to get on our knees and sit on our heels with feet flexed for an extended period of time. It was really uncomfortable. She told us the point was to get our bodies used to enduring pain without getting tense and be able to breathe through it. It was really hard and I thought to myself, "If I can't handle this, I'm really going to be a wimp in labor!" But I can see how this class will be helpful and it's fun to be around a bunch of other pregnant ladies.

Oh ya, and we went Facebook public last week. Here's the photo we shared announcing the pregnancy.