18 weeks

How your baby's growing: Head to bottom, your baby is approximately 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and she weighs almost 7 ounces. She's busy flexing her arms and legs — movements that you'll likely start noticing more and more. Her blood vessels are visible through her thin skin and her ears are now in position and stand out from her head. Myelin (a protective covering) is beginning to form around her nerves, a process that will continue for a year after she's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and Fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If your baby is a boy, his genitals are noticeable, though he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.

How your life's changing: Bigger, more comfortable clothes are a must now as your appetite and waistline increase. Look for specially designed maternity clothes that can accommodate your expanding belly.

You may have heard that you should avoid lying on your back during your last two trimesters. Here's why: When you lie flat on your back, your uterus can compress a major vein (called the inferior vena cava) that returns blood from the lower half of your body back to your heart. Lying on your side (or even partially tilted to the side), particularly your left side, prevents this compression and improves your blood flow. Try placing a pillow behind you, or under your hip or leg for comfort.

Your cardiovascular system is undergoing dramatic changes, and during your second trimester your blood pressure is probably lower than usual. Don't spring up too fast from a lying or sitting position or you might feel a little dizzy.

If you haven't already, you'll probably have an ultrasound done sometime this trimester (usually between 16 and 20 weeks). This painless procedure helps your practitioner check how your baby's growing, screen for certain birth defects, check the placenta and umbilical cord, determine whether the due date you're working with is accurate, and see how many babies you're carrying. During the exam, you might see your baby moving around or sucking her thumb. Bring your partner along, and be sure to ask for a printout for your baby's first photo album!

How I'm doing: Obviously, we've been really busy with not a lot of time to update here. The weekend before last we were up in Davis. We got to spend some time with my parents, Grant and Anna. We had a really good time. It was nice to spend some time in Davis where we really haven't been since we moved away over 4 years ago. It was good, of course, to spend time with my family. We went to a UC Davis football game at their new green stadium.



Surprisingly, they won the game too. So we had a good time.

Then it was a short week back at work and then off for Thanksgiving break. It won't come as a shock to those of you who know Scott well but he had to work Thanksgiving morning in the lab. Stem cells and hardcore scientists don't recognize Thanksgiving as a day off work. So we got a little bit of a later start than usual but luckily dinner reservation could be pushed back a little bit to accommodate our late arrival. We made in to Palm Springs to Harriet and Kay's for a nice dinner with the Pope's and smaller-than-usual group of family and friends. After dinner, football, and a game of poker we were on our way to San Diego. It was our first time in San Diego since the fires so things looked quite a bit different. We spent the rest of the long weekend in San Diego--Scott and Jim power washed the whole house, we did a little holiday shopping, and helped get a few things in order after the recent post-fire renovations.

The baby is doing well. It's been quite active--especially the past few days. I can definitely tell that its little bones are hardening since it's kicks are getting stronger. It's especially active around the end of my workday--when I'm getting tired, I'm sure that's a sign of things to come. So far Scott hasn't been able to feel anything from the outside. Hopefully that will happen soon. In the past two weeks someone outside of the people I specifically told asked me if I was pregnant. That was an exciting day. Two people in the same day actually. I'm starting to feel more pregnant since I can feel the baby move more frequently and stronger.

Only a little over 2 weeks until we find out if this baby is a boy or a girl!

16 weeks

How your baby's growing: At 4 1/2 inches long (head to bottom) and 3 1/2 ounces, your baby is about the size of an avocado. In the next three weeks, she'll go through a tremendous growth spurt, though, doubling her weight and adding inches to her length. Her lower limbs are much more developed now. Her head is more erect than it has been, and her eyes have moved toward the front of her head. Your baby's ears are close to their final position, too. Some of her more advanced body systems are working, including her circulatory system and urinary tract. Her heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, circulating her total blood volume through her body many times. (By the end of your pregnancy, this will increase to about 190 quarts.) The patterning of her scalp has begun, though her hair isn't recognizable yet. Although closed, her eyes are moving (slowly), and she's even started growing toenails.

How your life's changing: Have people been telling you how wonderful you look? The "glow of pregnancy" is real, thanks to increased blood flow to the skin. You may be enjoying yourself more, too, now that your hormones have stabilized and nausea has eased up. You're also probably less anxious about something happening to your baby (the risk of miscarriage drops dramatically after the 14th week) which likely adds to your overall sense of well-being.

Soon you'll experience one of the most wonderful moments of pregnancy — feeling your baby move. While some women notice "quickening" as early as 16 weeks, most don't until about 18 weeks or more. If this is your first baby, don't be too anxious — you may not be aware of your baby's movements until 20 weeks or so. The earliest movements may feel like little flutters, gas bubbles, or even like popcorn popping. Over the following weeks they'll start to feel unmistakably like kicks.

How I'm doing: Things are going very well today. We had another prenatal appointment this morning with a different midwife. We're slowing meeting all of the midwives in the group since whomever happens to be on call when I go into labor will deliver our baby. We got to hear the heart beating again. It's such a wonderful, reassuring sound. It's heart was beating at 153 bpm. This is much faster than our hearts beat. Prenatally babies hearts beat fast and they still beat faster than an adult's even after they are born. Some people think that a faster heart beat throughout pregnancy indicates the baby is a girl. Our baby's heart rate would fall into that "faster" range. We'll see if that holds true pretty soon.

Our next appointment is scheduled for December 11th. This is the BIG DAY. We'll finally find out if this baby is a boy or a girl. It seems like we've been waiting forever to find out.

We had another prenatal screening test done today. This is a blood test (my blood) that looks for chromosomal abnormalities (like Downs syndrome and others). Previously I was screened for other chromosomal abnormalities through a finger stick and measurements taken at my last ultrasound. Those results were completely normal showing that our baby had a 1 in 10,000 chance of developing one of the disorders (this is very low). The doctor that reviewed the ultrasound also said that he could see that the heart was appropriately developed, the limbs all looked normal and that the bladder was filling as it should be. So this baby is a rockstar so far.

In other big news in the Horrocks clan; we all recently found out that my sister, Melody is also pregnant. She's been married to Dusty a year and half longer than Scott and I have been married. She's less than a month behind me. So these cousins will probably be really close in age. It's too bad we live so far apart (Melody and Dusty live in Corvallis, Oregon which is not too far from Portland). She kept it a secret for a long time compared to us.

Tomorrow's my 27th birthday. So I'll be a fairly young mom. It was important to both Scott and I that we started a family while we were still pretty young.

This weekend we're driving up to Davis, CA to see my family and the UC Davis football probably lose to University of San Diego (not UC San Diego or San Diego State). We're looking forward to seeing my family for the first time since I've been pregnant and seeing the new UC Davis stadium.