Week 16, baby is 14 weeks old

Babies development: The bones have begun to get harder and ossifying and the joints are working. The baby's hearing mechanisms are also developing so that very small bones in the middle ear have begun to harden. However, its brain auditory centers haven't developed yet, so the baby won't be be able to make sense of the sounds. I think that is so interesting! The baby is now 4 1/3 to 4 2/3 inches long and weighs about 2 3/4 oz. It's about the size of an orange. The baby is very active right now, rolling over, and doing somersaults, but I probably won't feel more than a "flutter" since amniotic fluid cushions the baby's vigorous movements. Ultrasounds can now also determine the sex of the baby, but I won't have my appointment for about another month.

As you can see from the photo, I still don't look very pregnant to most people. To myself, however, I have definitely noticed a "pooch" that has developed. I read recently that a lot of first time mom's don't really start to show until week 20. A part of me wishes that I was showing more so that the pregnancy feels more real, but I'm beginning to be thankful that I don't have a huge belly yet. The baby isn't due until June 26th and I can't imagine having a huge stomach for six months.

I have my quad screening on Wednesday, which is a test that looks at certain hormones in the blood to "assess the risk" of down syndrome, cystic fibrosis and trisomy 18. The test sounds pretty inconclusive, since it seems like it only tells you the risk and I've read that a lot of women get false positives. Basically, they have to correctly date your pregnancy to make sure that certain hormone levels are within the normal range. If they are a week off dating the pregnancy, then they could think that one hormone level was too high, thus increasing your chances of carrying a baby with downs. I'm going to get the test done anyway, but if all things are normal (I hope!), this will be the last test that I have to take. It sounds like a lot of women don't even get it.

Ryan has started painting the nursery a gender neutral color - yellow. It's looking good so far!