Today we are booked into the Royal Hospital for Women for a tour of the maternity area to help us decide what sort of care we want for the rest of the pregnancy. I know I’ll have to make a decision on this before the end of the appointment with a midwife on July 23, and I thought it might be just that little bit easier if we have seen what we’re choosing. I don’t know that it will change our minds from what we chose last time, but will be nice to be a bit more informed.

Info from Birth.com.au:

You are now 9 weeks pregnant (49 days after conception), which is the beginning of week 10. Many women are now choosing their caregiver and their baby’s birthplace.

Science no longer refers to your baby as an ’embryo’. They are now called a ‘foetus’, which is a Latin word meaning ‘young one’. Your baby now measures more than 2.5 cm from crown to rump and the webbing between their fingers and toes has now disappeared, creating separate digits. Your baby’s nail beds are starting to form, but actual nails will not be present until they are about 20 weeks.

Your baby’s heart now has 4 distinct chambers as well as the valves within their aorta and pulmonary blood vessels. These direct blood flow ‘one way’ to and from their body and lungs. The yolk sac has now disappeared and your baby’s blood is being produced by their liver. Their blood production will eventually be taken over by their bone marrow, once their bones fully mature. Your baby’s lungs are growing, as the ‘bronchi’ branch out, spreading through their chest.

Your baby is now developing elbows, knees, wrists and ankles. Their bones are initially soft and flexible (made of cartilage) and muscle tissue is now forming between their skin and bones. Your baby’s neck is more developed, allowing them to slightly lift and turn their head! Your baby may now be able to touch their own face with their hand (the beginnings of thumb sucking!)

Your baby now has an anus and their ovaries or testes are well developed. However, both sexes look the same at this early stage because their external sex organs are just beginning to form.

I’m tired. I’ve also been completely unmotivated at work, which is depressing me a little. I am bad and haven’t been doing any exercise. I’ve put on 2 kg. I need to get back into that pool, or start walking home from work again. Not only will it help with my complete lack of fitness, but I’m sure that exercise will improve my spirits too. It always does.

It’s only been since last Thursday that I started wondering if I really am pregnant.  Before then I just couldn’t get it out of my head that something had gone wrong with this pregnancy, because I just didn’t feel pregnant at all.  I nearly cried earlier in the week when I told Andrew that I don’t feel like I’m pregnant. Still weeing lots, he asked. Not excessively. Still got sore boobs, he asked. Not as sore as they were. Still tired, he asked. Yes, though that comes and goes. No nausea, no extreme hunger pangs like last time, no feeling bloated like I did earlier and for the other pregnancies.  But on Thursday I started feeling a bit weird (hard to explain really), and since then I’ve been exceptionally tired and the soreness in my boobs seems to be coming back.  Weird things to be saying on a blog!  LOL.  I’m just glad not many people read it!  🙂

Info from birth.com.au:

You are now 8 weeks pregnant (42 days after conception), which is the beginning of week 9. This is the time when your second period would have been due. Most women are definitely aware they are pregnant now!

Your baby has grown to measure 1.5 cm and their head is now more rounded, making up about 25% of their entire body. Your baby’s face is becoming recognisably human. Their cheeks, mouth, lips and chin are more defined, and they now have nasal passages that create the tip of their nose. Your baby develops eyelids this week, which will remain fused and closed until they reach 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The internal and external parts of your baby’s ears begin to form, including their middle ear which is responsible for their hearing and balance. However, your baby will not be able to hear until they are somewhere between 19 to 24 weeks. Your baby now has immature taste buds on their tongue and under their smooth, translucent skin many tiny blood vessels can be seen networking through their body.

Your baby’s skeleton is starting to form and their arms and legs are now longer, extending forwards and across their body, appearing slightly bent. Your baby’s hands and feet now have 5 ridges on each, separated by narrow grooves, making them appear webbed.

I still don’t really feel pregnant, and sometimes I wonder if I really am. I don’t know when the pregnancy stopped being viable last time, or why, and with so few pregnancy symptoms and often feeling no symptoms I keep wondering if it’s happened again. It’s good to know everything was fine as of last Monday, although the security that gives me will obviously diminish with time. Maybe I’m just analysing everything too much. 😀

Info from Birth.com.au:

You are now 7 weeks pregnant (35 days after conception), which is the beginning of week 8. Your baby has more than doubled in size during the last week, to be just over 1 cm in length and is now looking more human. Each eye now has an optic cup, retina and lens and your baby’s nasal pits are now present. These will extend to become their nostrils. Your baby’s inner ears and tongue are starting to form and their upper jaw and palate come together this week, fusing as one. (If this fails to happen, the baby may be born with a cleft lip and/or palate.)

Your baby’s tadpole-like ‘tail’ is noticeably receding and their trunk is now slightly straighter. Your baby now has a pancreas and an appendix and the beginnings of their reproductive organs, although not distinctly male or female yet. By the end of this week a fine, transparent layer of skin covers their body and their fingers (although still webbed) are now being defined as distinct thumbs and fingers.

The blood test results for all my blood HCG levels taken to date are: 297 U/L on Friday 1st (4 weeks 6 days), 2198 on Tuesday 5th (5 weeks 3 days), 7079 on Friday 8th (the day I started bleeding a bit, 5 weeks 6 days) and 15983 on Monday 11th June (6 weeks 2 days).   That’s the news I was hoping for.  Looks like I’m well and truely up the duff!  😀

 Talking about up the duff, I bought the book of the same name written by Kaz Cooke on the weekend.  So far (I’m only up to week 5)  it’s been quite a light hearted, yet informative, read.  Admittedly I’ve read most of the information given before, in various books or places online, but it’s nice to have such an informal, chatty and, at times, amusing tone to it.

OK, I’m less stressed thismorning. The bleeding doesn’t seem to have lasted for long, and today it’s almost gone. So I have high hopes that everything is alright. I’m only 6 weeks today, which means we’ve only known about this pregnancy for just under 2 weeks, and already I’ve had two occasions for worry. I just hope it’s not setting the scene for the next 6 weeks or so, though I’m starting to conclude that I’m probably going to worry about this pregnancy so much more than my last, no matter what happens!

Anyway, this week’s info from Births.com.au

You are now 6 weeks pregnant (28 days after conception), which is the beginning of week 7. Your baby’s crown to rump length is about 5 mm (or 0.2 of an inch) and their facial features are gradually building up around a wide mouth. Their lower jaw forms first, shortly followed by their upper jaw. Your baby’s head and forehead are comparatively large and their brain is now forming within, with the start of bulging eyes on each side of their head.

Your baby’s limbs start to lengthen to form arms and then legs, with their hands and feet resembling ridged paddles, that will eventually become fingers and toes. Their internal organs are also taking shape. Their gullet (or ‘oesophagus’), stomach, kidneys and bowel are being defined, as well as 2 small buds which will form into lungs. Their heart is forming chambers and is beating away efficiently at 120 to 180 beats per minute! An ultrasound at this stage can detect an unborn baby’s heart beat relatively easily, unless the pregnancy is less advanced than first thought.