Milestone: 12 weeks!

It's such a relief to make it to 12 weeks, or what many people consider the end of the first trimester. If you want to get technical about it and do the math, the second trimester actually begins at 13 weeks and 3 days, but who's counting? 12 weeks is generally considered the "safe" period to start telling people, which we would do today if we hadn't already outed ourselves to family and friends several weeks ago!

This week, baby is the size of a vienna sausage (I just gagged):

And looks very similar to last week, but with better ears:

Baking Baby Blakely

"Baby's face is looking more human as his eyes have moved to the front of his head and his ears are in place. Hooray!

Other amazing fetal highlights this week:

Your baby is able to swallow this week and practices on the amniotic fluid he or she floats in. (And you thought baby food was kind of nasty!) And in case you're wondering how your kid can breathe in all that fluid, here's your answer: Fetuses get oxygen from the blood pumped into their bodies by the placenta and don't breathe with their lungs. Mystery solved!

This is kind of gross, albeit fascinating, so feel free to skip ahead: Your baby's intestines are well under way, but they aren't all where you'd expect them to be. Instead of all being locked away in the body cavity, some are dangling on the outside, in the umbilical cord. Ewwww.

Don't forget to put a baby nail file on your registry—your little nugget's finger- and toenails are forming this week. The chin and nose are also becoming more defined. Junior has doubled in size over the past two weeks and now weighs almost ½ ounce. He's also now around 2 ½ inches long, about the length of your pinky finger or a Vienna sausage, which, in a few months, will be indistinguishable from one another."

I haven't been doing any sort of survey from week to week, but a few things to note:

Food Aversions: Anything with tomato sauce. Yuck.

Cravings: Chinese Food, aka anything with soy sauce. Also, any kind of fresh fruit. I'm loving fruit smoothies (peaches, strawberries, mango, papaya) and watermelon.

Symptoms: Headaches and more headaches. Trying the Fioricet today.

Weight: Down 6 lbs pre-pregnancy weight (It's amazing what giving up Starbucks and soft drinks will do! I let myself indulge occasionally, but the days of Venti coffees & 2-3 cokes a day are over.)

Baby Bump: Nahh, not yet. My tummy is definitely bigger and I'm loving my maternity jeans, but I just look heavier than I did before, not pregnant. When I have a distinguishable baby bump, I'll post a picture, but it will be a while! Definitely looking forward to the baby belly!