Seven Weeks

Happy birthday grandma Lola!

I've been lazy. I figure if I have the time to rest, I should rest, but that generally ends in a messy kitchen, dirty laundry and a brain coma. However, I have noticed that when I do rest, my nausea is WAY easier to handle, so the benefits seem to outweigh the rest.

I'm hoping to meet with Nora later this week. I don't know what the appointment will consist of, other than the nutrition stuff. Also, I read the other day that you're unable to hear the baby's heartbeat until around 15 weeks, which is a lot further away than my original 8 week mark. I don't know who told me that you could hear it at 8 weeks, but I hope they're right!

Two of my friends from work threw me a surprise baby shower. We had plans to watch Gilmore Girls together, and then they sneakily added Sweet Spot cupcakes, yummy dinner and a WONDERFUL basket filled with baby clothes, accessories and glorious Mama Mio products for me. I was so surprised and overwhelmed with emotion! These girls are so sweet. It was fun to look at the things they picked out for Bean (all green and yellow, of course) and talk about how they went crazy planning and getting all excited for the night to arrive.

Names
As most of you know, we had five names chosen before we got pregnant. Three girl names, two boy names. The only one that fully survived is Ember Eleanor. We LOVE the name Gus, but boy names have been difficult for us. Names that have been tossed around recently are...

Ivy (girl)

Gideon (boy)

Orson (boy)

How I'm Feeling
The morning sickness is getting worse. It sucks in the morning until around lunchtime, and then comes back full force early evening around 4:00ish. Plus, after eating a meal maybe once or twice, I get so sick of it that the thought of another serving churns my stomach, which makes eating leftovers next to impossible. One odd thing has been happening...Whenever I get hit with a HUGE wave of nausea, I sneeze. I don't know if the nausea causes the sneeze, or if the need to sneeze causes the nausea. After I sneeze, though, I feel better.

Oh, and I woke up with a sore throat today. =\

What Bean's Doing
(Taken from babycenter.com)
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.