11 weeks!!!

wow, i am over 25% cooked and almost out of my first trimester!  so far things have been easy for me, i really can't complain.  i am still struggling with exhaustion, especially in the middle of the day at work.  but my hunger is evening out and i have been lucky enough to have completely avoided any morning sickness.

i really started to notice big changes in my body this week.  my boobs and belly are both bigger!  i still have not gained weight but the few pounds i did lose in early pregnancy are beginning to creep back on.  my goal is to not get any higher than my pre-pregnancy weight by the end of the first trimester.  at this point my uterus is enlarged enough to protrude over my pubic bone, it is feeling less like bloat and my stomach is feeling harder.  apparently this week it is common to start to get a dark line that runs down your belly called the "linea negra," this is from your stomach muscles stretching, but it has not appeared for me yet!

baby is the size of a lime

here are some baby growth milestones this week...

~fingers and toes are getting longer
~baby can drink amniotic fluid and flush it out as urine
~head is becoming more rounded and it he/she has eyelids
~fingernails are forming
~head is almost as big as rest of body
~at some point this week blood will start circulating between uterus and fetus and the placenta will start functioning

i am so excited to be leaving for a nice and relaxing vacation, and the best part is we will begin it with an ultrasound.  our baby has a strong heartbeat of 147 (same as last time) and we even got to hear it, music to my ears!!!  it has grown quite a bit and actually looks like a mini human in there.  we got to see the arms, feet and umbilical cord.  we went to a private ultrasound place, so it was a technician giving me all the info, so we can't confirm anything until i see my doctor when we return from vacation, but the tech did tell me we are measuring at 12 weeks 2 days (about a week further along) and the baby weighs 2 ounces, which is big in size, yikes!