The Green Room

Yay! There is only one baby growing in me! It is currently 7 and a half centimeters long (not counting its legs, because they wouldn’t hold still) and has a heartrate of 156 beats per minute. Ultrasounds are amazing. On some of the closeups, you could see all the bones in its little hands, which it was waving all over the place. And its spine! It has the most beautiful spine, with all the little vertebra and ribs! We could even see into its skull and see its brain! I’m pretty sure I have the most beautiful baby in the world.

Since the heartbeat proved inconclusive, we’ve got an ultrasound scheduled for this afternoon. I am trying not to panic.

Yay! I’m back in the blogmass again! Thank you Moss!

In other news, Raptor Cam is back!

Flying Czechoslovakian pigs to the rescue!

So, Mom is convinced that I’m having twins, because my belly is apparently far too large to only be nine weeks along. I guess we’ll find out on Wednesday whether there’s one heartbeat or two. I really hope she’s just trying to scare me. Not that we wouldn’t find a way to deal with twins, but still. I think one baby at a time is more than enough to cope with.

There is still far too much grass growing in inappropriate places in my garden, but that’s at least one clump of daffodils that has some room to breathe now!

From an email newsletter I’ve signed up for, which tells you every week what your baby is up to. This is the update for week nine:

Your new resident is nearly an inch long — about the size of a grape — and weighs just a fraction of an ounce. She’s starting to look more and more human. Her essential body parts are accounted for, though they’ll go through plenty of fine-tuning in the coming months. Other changes abound: Your baby’s heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form — as do her tiny teeth. The embryonic “tail” is completely gone. Your baby’s organs, muscles, and nerves are kicking into gear. The external sex organs are there but won’t be distinguishable as male or female for another few weeks. Her eyes are fully formed, but her eyelids are fused shut and won’t open until 27 weeks. She has tiny earlobes, and her mouth, nose, and nostrils are more distinct. The placenta is developed enough now to take over most of the critical job of producing hormones. Now that your baby’s basic physiology is in place, she’s poised for rapid weight gain.

Yay for rapid weight gain! Because if I already have a bump at nine weeks, I can’t wait to see what rapid weight gain will look like! < / sarcasm >

My next doctor’s appointment is next Wednesday, and it is all I can think about. What’s the deal, baby? I know you’re trying to take over my body, but do you have to take over my mind as well?

It was such a gloriously warm afternoon that I went outside and drew chalk patterns on our front walk. There are three kids living in the house on the corner, and they had set up a card table on the sidewalk and were yelling, “Bake Sale for Haiti!” at every passing car, so I went over to investigate. They had made a huge batch of brownies, using their grandmother’s special recipe, and they were still warm and gooey and very delicious. I ate mine sitting on my front step, drinking a glass of juice and reading The Mauritius Command, and feeling very, very happy to live in a real neighborhood again.