7 weeks!

I am 7 weeks today! Still not much to report, other than being tired and a little nauseous. Both of those symptoms are typically in the evening, although I do get a little nauseous first thing in the morning until I eat something. My appetite has been great during the day, until dinner time. Then my body goes into "nothing sounds or smells good" mode. So I usually just have something light or chicken noodle soup. Poor Shawn is probably not going to get a home-cooked dinner for a little while!

We have another ultrasound this coming Thursday. I can't wait to see how much bigger baby Kirby has gotten and hear the strong heartbeat! I look forward to this every week now! My fertility doctor wants me to start seeing an OB before they release me. So I have my first OB appointment on July 9th, just as a new patient checkup. I am actually not looking forward to being released from my fertility clinic. First of all, I have been spoiled with these weekly ultrasounds. Once I am released to the OB, I'll only have maybe 1 ultrasound per month! :-( (Side note: I am considering renting a doppler fetal monitor so we can hear the heartbeat at home, in-between ultrasounds.) Also, I'm really going to miss the staff at HFI. They have been so wonderful to us, and I am so grateful to them for helping us to finally get pregnant! But I'll see them again in a few years when we're ready to try for baby #2!

Here is baby Kirby's 7 week developmental update:

The big news this week: Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs — although they look more like paddles at this point than the tiny, pudgy extremities you're daydreaming about holding and tickling. Technically, your baby is still considered an embryo and has something of a small tail, which is an extension of her tailbone. The tail will disappear within a few weeks, but that's the only thing getting smaller. Your baby has doubled in size since last week and now measures half an inch long, about the size of a blueberry.

If you could see inside your womb, you'd spot eyelid folds partially covering her peepers, which already have some color, as well as the tip of her nose and tiny veins beneath parchment-thin skin. Both hemispheres of your baby's brain are growing, and her liver is churning out red blood cells until her bone marrow forms and takes over this role. She also has an appendix and a pancreas, which will eventually produce the hormone insulin to aid in digestion. A loop in your baby's growing intestines is bulging into her umbilical cord, which now has distinct blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients to and from her tiny body.

Lord, thank You for another week of blessings and new life. Please continue to watch over our growing baby as we go into a new week with new developments. We are forever grateful for your mercy and grace. All the power and glory is Yours, God, now and forever. Amen.