Week 8

Here's 8 week old Baby Florek!

After many demands/requests for another post on the baby blog, we are finally complying. It has been a busy week for us, but not as busy as for Baby! Here's what Baby has been up to recently and what is coming up on the schedule this week.

Biggest accomplishment: Baby Florek no longer looks like an ape or pig embryo! Past 6 weeks he/she now looks like a human baby!

The head is still very big in relation to the rest of the body, but it is now starting to straighten up instead of being tipped all the way forward. The kidneys are functioning and producing urine (medical students, we expect that you understand every bit of this process after Dr. Severson's lectures Tuesday and Wednesday). The stomach is producing gastric juices. The nerves are now sending impulses from the brain to the skeletal muscle and so Baby is moving and active almost all of the time (though it will be some time before Mom can actually feel this). The liver is producing red blood cells now until the bone marrow takes over later. The pancreas and lungs are developing more. Baby has elbows! Hands are becoming recognizable as hands with individual fingers. Feet and legs develop after hands and arms, so they are still fairly paddle-like. Two weeks from now they will have individual toes! Teeth, bones, and cartilage have begun to form. And here is my favorite news from Baby this week: the tongue is beginning to develop! Baby is now about 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch long and weighs 1 gram (0.04 oz). As you can see, Baby has been quite busy this week.

Mom: I'm feeling more pregnant than before, which is both good and bad. I'm glad to have some reassurance that I actually am pregnant and not just faking it (I'm not sure how one would fake being pregnant). But on the other hand I don't especially enjoy feeling nauseous several times a day or being so tired I feel like I have mono. So far no puking, which I am very thankful for. It seems to help to eat small amounts of food often throughout the day. My constant grazing (not to mention the fact that I'm pregnant) has led to a well-deserved 3 lb weight gain! Supposedly I'm supposed to gain about 5 lbs in the first trimester (up to week 12), so I have a few weeks left in which I can gain a couple more pounds. We'll try to post another side profile picture of both of us this week to see if you can tell. Other than looking forward to the end of fatigue and nausea, I can't really complain. I'm happy to be a baby incubator.

Dad: So far all our fears about Dad gaining more weight than Mom during this pregnancy are unjustified. This Thanksgiving was full of sitting and snacking which turns out to be a great way to lose 4 lbs! I think I have a tapeworm. Just a throwback to when we were kids and my dad used to tell my brother he was feeding his tapeworm when we consumed more than should be possible. Kristi is sitting next to me now eating chocolate ice cream and wondering why she is gaining weight... its a mystery I guess. Honestly, shes a healthier snacker than I. We bought our first baby clothes last week. This was a big step for us, but we found almost-new clothes at a thrift store and couldn't pass them up for less than a dollar each! We decided this baby is going to be just as cheap (Kristi wants me to say frugal) as his or her parents. We tried to stay away from the "daddy's girl" and "thank heaven for little boys" pink and blue items since we are going to stay in suspense as to the gender of this little one. So we have lots of greens and yellows. I was sad to be told several times during the last week that any man in his right mind would not be hoping for twins, but I'm going to have to have some more convincing before I let that dream die.

Thanks for keeping up with us. We'd love to hear from you in the comments section!

Tracking Family Growth

Today we start the documentation of Mom and Dad's growth over the next 8 months. As you can see from the pictures, we will call these ones "baseline." As it becomes applicable, we will add amounts of weight gained. Let's hope Mom's weight gain exceeds Dad's.

On the baby development front, here's what's new:

Facial features are starting to develop. Baby has eyes (on the side of the head), a nose, and mouth. Under the nose (where most people have an indentation) there is still a gap--if this does not close normally a baby will have a cleft lip/palate. Luckily, this closes in most babies. Baby Florek can expect this development next week or so. Nostrils are also forming this week and next. The lungs are developing--there is a trachea and right and left primary bronchi (the main airways going into the lungs). Hands and feet are coming along, though they are still more like little paddles than fingers and toes! Right now the abdominal cavity is too small for its intestines to fit inside, so they are partially outside baby's body. Baby Florek is approximately 5mm, about the size of a lentil. Cute, huh?

We've been getting a lot of questions about school and whether our plans are going to change with a baby on the way. So far we plan on finishing on time in 4 years (Spring 2009). We do have a flexible MD program at UMD so that we can take up to 6 years to graduate without paying any extra tuition, but as of now we aren't planning on utilizing that option. Next year we are probably participating in a rural program for 9 months where we will live in either Owatonna (near Kristi's family) or Buffalo (near Matt's family) and each work one-on-one with a family practice doctor. This is a nice option for us because we will have a more "normal" schedule (8am-5pm) than if we went to the Minneapolis campus (any and all hours of the day and night). This rural program will allow us to be home more with baby and be more flexible if someone needs to stay home with a sick baby. We will welcome votes toward either Owatonna or Buffalo...grandparents, this is your time to lobby for your town!

Welcome to the world (wide web) Baby Florek!

Look Out World, Here We Come!

This is our first venture into the world of blogging! We thought this would be a great way to keep all you family and friends out there in this big wide world connected to the three of us. Feel free to use this little bit of cyberspace to post your own comments, advice or just to poke fun at us. Here you may find updates on the progress of Baby Florek's development (6 weeks along currently) and humorous anecdotes from Mom and Pops. There may also be some not-so-humorous comments from Mom when she is puking or having trouble finding pants to fit her. Once in a while we may write something meaningful or serious while we are in a state of reflection on the enormous change descending on our currently peaceful lives. Without further ado....

Baby Florek is at 6 weeks of development. Its heart started beating 4 days ago, the neural tube is currently closing (so that it doesn't have holes in its head or spinal column), little flippers that will eventually be arms and legs have formed, its head and neck take up most of its body, and it is a quarter of an inch long. Also, according to "embryologists" (those who study development pre-birth) it is pretty indistinguishable from an ape or pig baby. Well, with us for parents, you never know...

Mom: I have been blissfully symptom-less up until yesterday and today when food has become less of a friend and more of a necessity. Those of you who know me know that I love food, so this is an unwelcome change. Other than a little bit of nausea and fatigue, I feel great and am so happy to be pregnant.

Dad: As for me, well, I am eating right now, and loving it! I have been called such things as the home disposal unit, and with this new change in Kristi's eating habits, not wanting to finish her meal and what-not, I am not sure which one of us will be shopping in the maternity section.