5 Weeks

It is slowly starting to sink in that this is really happening.  I feel like we just found out about the pregnancy yesterday, but at the same time I feel like I have known for a long time.  I guess it's because I think about this little one growing inside me probably 90% of my waking hours (and dream about it almost every night too!)  Even though I love going about my day knowing this little secret that no one else does, I guess I couldn't wait too long without sharing the good news with someone else...  I broke down and told two people at work (the girls I am closest to at each of my jobs) and of course they were both super excited for Erik and I.  We will be telling our parents next weekend and I can hardly wait! 

My 5 week photos are nothing to get too excited about...  I was in the middle of "spring cleaning" upstairs in the bedrooms (mainly to make room for all this baby stuff I am buying) and realized that I needed to take my 5 week photos today.  No makeup, work-out clothes on, and messy hair...  Then again, when is my hair ever not messy?  ;)

5 weeks

Obviously there is no change since last week, nor did I expect there to be.  It was the OCD girl inside of me who decided that since I started taking photos at 4 weeks, I will need to continue every week until birth!

5 week facts:

• The baby now resembles a teeny tadpole (complete with a tiny tail) and is about the size of an apple seed, approximately 0.13 inches in length
• The major organs (heart, stomach, liver, kidney) and systems (digestive, circulatory, nervous) have started to develop, as well the tiny heart has already formed and will start beating this week!!

Appleseeds

Symptoms:

I am happy to report that I am feeling great right now.  I am sure my breasts have grown even more this week although they are not as sore as last week.  No morning sickness yet, but I have had this weird thing happen a few times lately where I have been eating and my body suddenly says "STOP NOW, stomach full!"  I had 2 bites of oatmeal left in my bowl this morning and seriously just couldn't finish it.
I am sure that true pregnancy cravings don't happen until much later, but I will say that lately I have been eating lemons like crazy.  This started even a week or more before I found out I was pregnant.  I have been averaging at least one full lemon (or more) everyday since then.  Mostly in the form of lemon water, but have also caught myself squirting lemon on every food that it might possibly go with (and actually eating plain slices of lemons at times!)  The lemon obsession is helping me drink more water though, of which I have at least doubled my intake this week.  I read in one of my pregnancy books that there is an old wives tale which says sweet cravings means its a girl, sour cravings means its a boy...  I have always thought that our first baby would be a boy so maybe there is some truth to these old wives tales  ;)
The only other symptom that I have had this week (as well as the most problematic one) has been insomnia.  I have not got my usual 7-8 hours of sleep at all in over a week.  Even if I am tired when I go to bed, I have a hard time actually falling asleep.  Then I usually wake up between 2am-4am and lay awake for an hour.  Then I wake up again around 6am and just can't get back to sleep.  An entire week of this resulted in me being so extremely exhausted by Friday that I went to bed at 9pm, which is almost unheard of for me.  Fortunately this weekend I was able to catch up on sleep (even though I woke up several times in the night) and have felt super great all weekend. 


I called earlier this week to make my first appointment with a Midwife at the Birthing Center, but they require you to take a tour before they will schedule you an appointment.  I thought that was kinda odd at first, but when I thought about it I realized that they probably answer a lot of questions during the tour that would otherwise be asked during the initial appointment and it allows them to be answered as a group rather than having to answer them all individually.  As well, I bet there are some women that don't understand how things work at a freestanding Birthing Center (maybe even expect that they offer epidurals for pain control) so likely not everyone that tours will actually end up choosing the practice for their prenatal care and birth.  I set up for us to take a tour on Tuesday, and I am very much looking forward to it.  Afterwards, I will be able to schedule my first appointment, which won't actually be until I am 10-12 weeks along.  By that time, the heartbeat should be audible by doppler, so hopefully we will get to hear it at our first appointment!


I am really looking forward to Friday when we head to Tennessee to visit my parents.  It will be then that we tell our immediate families the happy news (and hope they can keep it a secret for the next 6 weeks to follow!)  This will be the first grandchild for both families so I am sure everyone is going to be very excited!