Week 16

Yesterday was 16 weeks! I thought this was going to be the start of my last week of month 4. Turns out, I didn't realize month 3 has five weeks in it (Weeks 9-13), so that means month 4 actually started with week 14 and I'll start month 5 at the beginning of week 18. Here's the breakdown for those who don't know how this works:

First Trimester

Month 1: Weeks 1-4
Month 2: Weeks 5-8
Month 3: Weeks 9-13

Second Trimester
Month 4: Weeks 14-17
Month 5: Weeks 18-21
Month 6: Weeks 22-26

Third Trimester
Month 7: Weeks 27-30

Month 8: Weeks 31-35

Month 9: Weeks 36-40

I've started getting super hungry again in the last few days and my stomach is itching. So I think the baby is going through another grow spurt. I'm excited that my baby bump is getting bigger and looking less like fat. All these changes are pretty exciting. The baby weighs probably about 2 3/4 ounces right now and by the end of this week will be about 3 1/2 ounces and the size of my hand spread open wide! Our baby now has soft hair, called lanugo, all over his/her body and has well formed fingernails. His/her (we're now saying "shim") legs are longer than the arms and all four can move a lot now! This week, "shim" will form a lot more body fat. Hopefully, soon, I'll be able to feel the baby move!

I had my 16 week doctor's appointment this past Wednesday. Dr. Jin confirmed that I'm type O- and thus, depending on Emile's blood type (if he's type A, B or O +), then I'll have to get the RhoGam shot at 28 weeks and after the baby is born. This isn't anything dangerous or to be worried about -- it's only preventive, to ensure my body doesn't form antibodies against the baby's blood if the baby's blood were to mix somehow with mine and was a + type. This could just cause problems with me getting pregnant in the future if I end up forming the antibodies. So they take precautions.

We also got to hear our baby's heartbeat again at the doctor's using a Doppler machine. It was so reassuring and comforting since I can't tell what's going on. Dr. Jin said I wasn't showing yet but we think she's crazy. Whether the baby is just pushing my stomach up and the baby's still below my bellybutton (which is the case) or whether the bump is all baby -- I look pregnant versus fat so I'm going with it. Our next appointment with her is January 2. Assuming the baby cooperates, we should be able to find out the sex of the baby!! YAY!!

My mom is in town this weekend and we've done a ton of baby-related items. It's been fun. On Friday, we went to Baby's R Us and added some more things to my wish list. I'm using the registry as away of keeping track of what I want to buy over the next few months. Yesterday, my mom, Emile and I took an excursion out to New Jersey to a baby furniture store, Cribs and Teen City in Paramus (we left the island! without flying or me going to work!). It was definitely an adventure. Since we don't own cars, we had to find alternative way to get there. To save money we decided not to rent a car but instead we took: 1) a cab to Penn Station; 2) a train from Penn Station to Secaucus Station in New Jersey; 3) another train from Secaucus Station to Radburn Station in Fairlawn, New Jersey; and 4) a cab from Fairlawn to Paramus (which getting a cab in NJ is not like hailing one in NYC -- we had to call for a cab, wait awhile for a guy to come from his house to pick us up and he didn't really know how to get where we were going). Then after we looked around the store, we repeated steps 1-4 in reverse after waiting 30 minutes for a cab to come get us -- I love NYC public transportation and missed it being in New Jersey!

It was worth the trip though. We found the crib furniture we were originally interested in (Munire Antigua) and realized we didn't really like it that much. But luckily, they had a number of other Munire cribs. We decided on the Munire Savannah set in ivory! We ordered the crib, combo dresser (short one in the photo), foam mattress and changing pad (they were having a deal on buying those four together). My parents bought us the crib part of the set which was wonderful and really appreciated!