7 Weeks

I don't think it is visible in the photos we took today, but I can definitely tell that there is a change happening in my belly.  I noticed it on Tuesday morning right after I got out of bed.  It was like I had swallowed an entire orange in my sleep and it was just sitting in my lower abdomen.  To be quite honest, it is likely a combination of too much food lately (yikes!) and bloating.  I am pretty sure the extra roundness is not the tiny blueberry-sized baby, or even my uterus which has doubled in size in the past five weeks.  Let's call this change what it really is: a food baby.  ;)

7 Weeks:

7 Week Stats:

• Baby has doubled in size since last week and is now the size of a blueberry (around 1/2 inch in length)
• Both hemispheres of the brain are growing and forming around 100 new cells every minute
• The arm and leg joints are now forming, and from them are emerging tiny little buds which will grow into fingers and toes
• Other organs which have formed: a permanent set of kidneys, liver, appendix, and pancreas

blueberry baby

 Symptoms:

As I was hoping to report, I have so far luckily escaped the awful morning sickness!!  The only time I have felt ever so slightly nauseous, is when I let myself get so hungry that my stomach feels like it is trying to digest itself.  Yuck..  The feeling however, is quickly resolved by satisfying it with food.  That brings me to my most noticeable symptom of this past week:  I am always hungry.  I wake up and by the time I get downstairs I am starving and immediately need breakfast.  The rest of the day I am fine with my usual meals and a few small snacks, but again in the evening (usually right before bed) my stomach starts to growl again.  I try and eat something lite like a piece of fruit or raw vegetables but I usually go to bed wanting something more substantial.

In the past week I have also transitioned from a lemon obsession to a lime obsession.  Lime water is delicious.  

Also, I would be lying if I said I didn't buy three jars of these today at Trader Joes:

No, there are no plans to chop them up and add to ice cream (yet), but I have been mostly desiring salty and sour things lately and was pretty disappointed a few days ago when I realized we were out of pickles.  Of course I was hungry while we were food shopping today so one jar pf pickles didn't sound like enough.  Three sounded better, you know, in case there is some sort of national pickle shortage in the next week - I wanted to be prepared.  (As well, our T.J. only sells three types of pickles. Can't say for certain what would have happened if there had been even more to choose from.)

As far as other symptoms I should be complaining about right now: nausea, food aversions (ha - what's that??), frequent urination, acne, excessive saliva production, etc, well, they just aren't there. I am either very lucky or they just haven't hit me yet.

Luckily my energy levels have been pretty decent lately, and I am still managing to maintain something close to my usual work-out routine of running/walking with Lucy most days of the week.  I had have plans to run a 10k next Saturday, and as of today I am still planning on doing it.  All the research I have done says that it is okay to continue running in pregnancy, so long as you were a runner before you got pregnant and you don't overdo it.  I planned this 10k before I knew about the baby, and it is something I still really want to do.  That being said, if I am not feeling up to it when Saturday rolls around, I have told myself that I would be okay with not running it too.  I am not out to set any records, and my pace will likely be a comfortable jog.  The course is mostly flat and the race is at 8am so the temperature should be fairly cool.  If all goes as planned, I will be there with running shoes on and Erik to cheer me on from the sidelines!