25 weeks

Your baby's crown-to-rump length is about 8.8 inches. Weight has increased to around 1.5 pounds and fat is still being deposited at a high rate. Babies come in all shapes and sizes, so your baby could vary slightly from these `average` measurements. Your uterus has grown quite a bit bigger this week. The top of your uterus is between your bellybutton and your sternum. Your uterus is about the size of a soccer ball now!

If your baby is delivered at this time, it would have a good chance of surviving. It is best for your baby to remain inside of you for the remainder of the pregnancy, but great advances have been made in the care of a premature baby. Ventilators, monitors and medications all help premature babies develop and grow outside of the womb. If your baby were born this early, he would probably have to spend several months in the hospital and would be more susceptible to infections and other complications.

You can hear your baby's heartbeat with both a Doppler and a stethoscope at this time, and your partner may even be able to hear the heartbeat unaided if he puts his ear in the right position. Sex differentiation is being completed now. If you are expecting a baby boy, the testes start to descend into the scrotum. In baby girls, the vagina is hollowing out. Your baby is able to do more with their fingers now and can move his fingers to make a complete fist. As your baby becomes more dexterous, he will be able to touch and hold her feet. Babies also begin to prefer their left hand or right hand at this time. Because babies settle into routines of sleep and activity, you might begin to notice these patterns as well. Some women experience the most fetal movements while they are trying to rest.

The furniture arrived this weekend and Joey put it all together. It took him about 20 minutes with the help of our friend Arnold and his car. I will have to say I was a little skeptical about their means of getting the furniture home (see picture), but it all made it and Joey said they both were pretty easy to put together. Our next task is to search for some window treatments and some sort of rocking chair to put next to the dresser. I am thinking of a rocker-recliner instead of a glider. I think that once we stop using the chair in in the babies room, that it can come out and be used in the living room. Of course not in the small place we live in now, but we have plans to get a house with in the next couple years and I am sure we will have room then. But, we will look around and see what the best option will be.

I took Audrey out on the town on Saturday for Hannas bachelorette party. Yes, I was the sober pregnant lady who went to the bars and clubs. Yes I danced a bit. Yes people gave some wierd looks. And Yes I was exhausted at the end of the night (I haven't been out let alone been up till 3am in a LONG time) But I had a great time with my girls.

Latley I have been asked a bunch of questions about our journey to parent hood, by my friends, family, and co-workers. Since most of you all have access to this blog I will just answer all of them at once:
How long did it take you to conceive: 16 LONG months

Since it took you so long, did you have a doctors assistance: Kinda. I went in to my OBGYN (who specializes in infertilty) at the 1 year mark. Since I went off birth control at our 1 year anniversary, my menstral cycle was LONG and unpredictable. At the 6th month mark I starting charting my basal body temp to make sure I was even ovulating at all. Doing this determined that I was ovulating but not every cycle and it was very hard to predict when since my cyles were all over the place. Anyway, my doc ordered a lot of blood work and Joey and I had to do a few simple tests. I had to had to have an HSG and Joey had to do a seman analysis. Both of those tests came back normal. The doctor did discover that I had a small case of PCOS that could be due to a very high insulin reisistance which could be the factor in me not ovualting as regularly as I should. So she put me on metformin (a diabetic drug) and told me to restrict my refined surgar intake and exercise more. I ended up losing 15 pounds and just felt healthier. My cycles normalized and I was able to predict ovulation more easlily. On my last cycle of taking metformin (I did it for 3 cycles) was when we found out we were pregnant. If I did not get pregnant that cycle she would have referred us to an a Reproductive Endocrinologist. I definatly was very affraid and scared that we could not do this on our own but we did and I am very thankful for that. I will tell you, we would have done ANYTHING to get pregnant even though I knew it would have been a much harder journey. I am glad the things worked out the way they did.

Did sex feel like a chore: Sometimes it did but not always. But the night Joey and I conceived our little bean was after a night out at a friends wedding. We had some drinks and it was sex for fun. Go figure. If this is a TMI- too bad its the truth

Will you go back on metformin to concieve the next child? Not sure. We will cross that road when it comes. Right not I am enjoying being pregnant with the 1st.