The Baby Page

This page is my way of feeling more involved in Gloria's Pregnancy and to have a way of keeping anyone who may want to know how things are going, up to date....Besides that, anyone who knows me, knows I look for any reason I can to justify sitting my ass in front of the computer for hours...lol

I'm totally stoked about all of this and very anxious about alot of things...Note that I said "anxious"...I'm not really nervous, which I think I should be, considering how huge this is. But there's still plenty of time for me to turn into a basketcase.... For now, I'm feeling rather secure that I'll keep it together and be a good dad to my little one.

So, at this point, being very early on in Gloria's 9 Months of fun (hehe), there isn't alot to tell....We estimate the conception date is sometime in the second (maybe 3rd) week of October...and that's all I've got to say about that...hehe

Of course, Mommy and I are already differing about the sex...I would like her to be "daddy's little girl" and Gloria would like another "mommy's little boy"...I really hope I win this one. ;o) ...It's pretty early but I've already been given the honor of naming the baby, since this will be my first.....I'm not one for the tradition of passing on names and calling a kid junior but I'm leaning towards the middle name honoring the past...So, what I've come up with so far is Boy: Jacob Thomas or girl: Jessica Ann....No, I'm not being an ego-maniac, the Thomas is for my Mother's father, as I was....and the Ann is my mother's middle name. If you can think of a name you'd like to recommend, I'd be more than happy to hear it, (I'd also give you an honorable mention on this page if I like it more than the ones I have in mind ;o))...or if you'd like to offer any words of wisdom, tales of horror (lol) or a simple congrats, Just drop it in an e-mail with the subject line "baby"

It's very surprising how quickly a baby develops, I had no idea it all happens this fast.

At 4 weeks, Gloria finds out she's pregnant...Changes eating habits...not much for morning sickness....Mom doesn't drink or smoke so no change there, Dad has less than 8 Months to kick his nicotine habit...ARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!...lol.

At 5 weeks, the baby already has a heartbeat of her own and is about the size of a raisin...awww ain't she cute?....lol...The neural tube enlarges into three parts, soon to become a very complex brain...(we hope...lol) The placenta begins functioning. The spine and spinal cord grows faster than the rest of the body at this stage and give the appearance of a tail. This disappears as the child continues to grow....look at that cute little tail, my little sea monkey!

At 6 weeks, Gloria goes to the midwife center and finds out the little package gets here on or about July, 14 2005 and gets her prenatal vitamins....Mom starts getting emotional and having weird dreams...(oh goody...lol) Since she didn't get this way with her son, I'm suuuuure it's a girl ;o) And right now she's putting her little face on...fully equiped with a mouth and tongue. :oP
Next week is the visit to a nutritionist and a midwife.

At 7 weeks, Baby has her face, her eyes have retinas and lenses and she's got some muscles now...almost time to start kickin' Mom!...she's got her liver working overtime making her own blood now...ewwwwwww, but very cool...She might look like a tiny gob of chewed bubble gum right now but she'll be alot cuter next week...hehe

At 8 weeks, apparently baby has downloaded a service pack or some updates because she is now officially "Fetus 1.0"!!!
She has fingers now and almost has toes and she's swimming around gracefully in her little sac...She even has measurable brainwaves now....She's such a smart fetus!...lol...Everything is very very cool....Gloria met with the midwife and things are going as planned and we get to hear the heartbeat on the 12/22...pretty cool Christmas present. If all goes well with the tech aspect of that, I'll be posting a link to a heartbeat.wav.

At 9 weeks, I fell a little behind on this page but I'll be all caught up really quick....The little one is now "fetus 1.10", the ".10" is for the ten toes she most certainly has now ;o)
Gloria has been feeling the fluttering when she's swimmin around but no kicks yet, still too soon for that, I guess.

At 10 weeks, lots of really cool stuff goin' on!!!
The heart is almost completely developed and very much resembles that of a newborn baby. An opening, the atrium of the heart and the presence of a bypass valve divert much of the blood away from the lungs, as the child's blood is oxygenated through the placenta. Twenty tiny baby teeth are forming in the gums.
(wonderful thoughts of the peace and quiet those little baby teeth are gonna disrupt when they start coming in...lol)
very cool info about the heart, which incidently, I'll be hearing for the first time tomorrow morning...ain't that awesome? :o)...I lost my instructions for my mp3 player and I'm not sure how to make it record but I'll get it to work or die tryin'!!!

Well, today was the day!!!!...yeaaaaa!...I got to hear the baby's heartbeat...totally cool experience
She seemed to be hiding a little at first and we thought we were gonna leave the mid-wife office without hearing it but tracked the little bugger down!...So, as I promised, the much anticipated heartbeat.wav ;o)

Click For Baby's Heartbeat
Recorded 12/22/04

At 11 weeks, Baby is workin' overtime on alot of things...Her little brain, vocal chords and eyelids will be complete by next week....I'm still excited that we got to hear her heartbeat last Wednesday...did ya' listen..huh, huh, did ya huh? ;o)
I know that wasn't the best quality wav file but I'll do better next time, which probably won't be for another few weeks to a month...and yep, I'm already looking forward to that...and even more so to the sonograms and the pics I can post from that.

So, at 12 weeks, we're about to head into the second trimester...Time sure does fly.
As I said in my last update, there were alot of cool things going on this week...Not that there isn't always some developmental milestone, but she now has a functional little brain that can feel pain and such, her vocal chords are complete and she can actually cry (fortunately she breathes fluid right now and we can't hear her yet!...lol), and eyelids that will stay closed from now til 7 Months to protect her optic nerves... She can even start sucking her thumb now....*GAH!!!, get your thumb outta your mouth when I'm talking about you to strangers* ;o)

At 13 weeks, I've started considering other names...Gloria expressed some disapproval in the choices I made and made me feel like I should come up with a few options...The honor of naming the baby doesn't mean picking a name we aren't both happy with.
So, at this point I'll work on girls names *since thats what she's gonna be anyway :o)*...Anyway, so far I've come up with Amanda, Holly, Tracey and Megan ( I do still like Jessica though )...We'll see what Mommy thinks of those.
As for baby development, alot of muscle work going on, bulking up and stretching out...FEEL THE BURN BABY!!!...I guess the kicks will be coming soon ;o)
Oh, and we have another heartbeat visit on the 1/19 so maybe I can get a better recording this time.

At 14 weeks, we got to hear the baby's heartbeat again this morning. Pretty cool, the heartbeat was a bit louder and easier to find this time but I didn't get a great recording since the midwife wanted to do a commentary through most of it...I did manage to piece together some parts that she shut up for though ;o)...We have another visit on 2/2 (maybe a different midwife that doesn't wanna talk so much :o))...And also a big visit on 2/16 for the first ultrasound...WAYYYYY COOL!!!!!
As for Developmental info, I found a really good site to plagiarize and a good ol' fashion copy and paste is in order ;o)
The growth of the baby speeds up considerably as the internal organs mature and she increases in size. In fact, her weight has already doubled from the previous week. The placenta is functioning to full capacity as it nourishes the fetus as well as produces hormones. The baby's major muscles are moving in tandem with the brain as she bends and twists her arms, wrists, elbows, fingers, legs, knees and toes. Her nervous system has also begun to function. You can hear a strong heartbeat with the help of an electronic device.(no kiddin'? ;o) ) It is almost twice the rate of a normal adult's. What's more, baby has begun to sprout hair. She seems to have eyebrows as well as a little hair on her head. By the end of this week, the baby will measure around four inches or 10cm. She now weighs two and quarter ounces or 65g. which is more than double that of the previous week....told ya'...Time to bulk up!!!

Click For Baby's Heartbeat
Recorded 1/19/05

At 15 weeks, Baby is listening, SO WATCH YOUR MOUTH DAMMIT!!!!...the 3 little bones of the inner ear start to harden and she can vaguely hear. I say vaguely because her brain hasn't developed enough to understand the sounds yet, but soon...Mommy should be playing her some tunes to keep her from getting cranky :o)
She's still puttin on some height and weight (obviously) and is at about 5.25 inches long and 3.5 ounces...She developes eyelashes this week and her hair and eyebrows are getting thicker.

At 16 weeks,we just had another midwife check-up visit... Got to hear the baby's heartbeat again, while that's pretty cool in itself, Gloria and I are both really looking forward to the 16th for the ultrasound.
I'll do another copy and paste from the pregnancy site I found (since it seems to be the most informative on the web so far)
This week it looks like the baby's body is finally trying to catch up with the head, though the head still looks much larger. Her chin looks very tiny in comparison to her wide mouth and her eyes have grown much bigger but they are still closed. On the whole her face looks even more human and she has also learned to suck her thumb. Her eyelashes and brows have grown even longer and she seems to be developing fine downy hair all over her face and body...(hairy little monkey!!!).... This is known as "lanugo" and is supposed to protect her by regulating her body temperature. Most of this hair will disappear before birth and if at all any of it is left, it will fall off gradually.
Though the skin is developing, it is still very thin and transparent so the network of blood vessels running underneath it can easily be identified. Also, the baby has learned to breathe. This is apparent from the regular movements of her chest. And her heartbeat is twice that of yours or any other normal adults.(which incidently was about 140 beats per minute on this visit) All of a sudden her sex organs have matured enough for a very trained eye to determine the sex. The external genital organs can just about be made out on an ultrasound scan. (stop gawking, you weirdo! ;o))
She measures about six inches by this stage and weighs four and a three-quarter ounces.
Oh, and I almost forgot....Mommy and I have decided on a name we both like (holy $#%@!!!), it Looks like she'll be named Amanda Lee (Sure hope she's a girl cuz she's gonna get picked on something fierce if she's a boy named Amanda!!! ;o) )

Click For Baby's Heartbeat
Recorded 2/2/05

At 17 weeks, I fell a little behind in the updates...Not that there was much to plagiarize from my pregnancy info site either...Just that baby's muscles and joints are ready for action and she should be moving around quite a bit now (whether Mommy can feel it or not)

At 18 weeks, Happy Valentines day to Mommy and Baby!!!...as for updates, it looks like another good one to steal from the site and will also be updated again Wednesday after the ultrasound (YEAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!)
This week it's not just a hyperactive imagination when the baby kicks or throws a few punches as she begins to test her reflexes. It should be quite hard-hitting as her arms and legs are quite well formed and she has begun her most active phase. It's not uncommon for her to twist and turn and wriggle about all day as she is trying to prepare for her friskiness once she is born. She most definitely is sucking her thumb too...(Mmmmm, tastes like chicken!!!)
Over the next week or so, tiny air sacs called "alveoli" will begin to form in her fast developing lungs. She now measures about eight inches or 20cm.

~=ULTRASOUND UPDATE=~

As it turns out, my little monkey is a little boy...I can't say I wasn't a little disappointed but that was my fault for getting my head set on a girl when we all know it's a 50/50 shot.
Gonna take a little mental adjusting but I'm sure I'll dig having my little man to hang out with.
As with all ultrasounds, the images are somewhat obscured and you often need a traimed eye to know what you're looking at, but you can definitely see some stuff on your own without the aid of an expert.
Oh, and his name is Jacob Thomas!!! I really really like that name for him but unfortunately it's subject to change due to Mommy not being totally sold on it, although she is calling him by that when she talks about him, so I think it's the front-runner so far.
A little something I just noticed while scrutinizing the ultrasound pics the other day is, my untrained eye thinks that it can see the umbilical cord running down between his legs which may or may not cause the illusion of him being a boy...like I said, "untrained eye", it's very likely that the ultrasound technician is right but it took some serious zooming in on a very high resolution image to pick it up...I'll be happy either way as long as he or she is a healthy happy little baby but in my opinion, there's still a possibility of having a little girl :o)

Click Image to View All

At 20 weeks, Baby is about half way here and about half the size he'll be when he makes his entrance, thats about 10 inches long and weighs about 12 oz....Some greasy white stuff called vemix has started to form to protect his skin (ewwwww, crisco covered baby! ;o) )
Gloria has been feeling him move around kicking and punching quite a bit now and totally digs it... (I've yet to feel it through her belly, he seems to be sleeping when I'm around)
I guess the growth rate slows down a bit for the next few weeks while he starts developing other things.

It seems I fell behind again and actually lost track of how many weeks we're at but I'm pretty sure it's somewhere near 23...I did miss a few significant developmental steps in the last 3 weeks. Some being that, He's not transparent anymore, He now has a fully developed tongue and the legs are fully proportional to his body....At 21 weeks He weighed about 1 pound....At 22 weeks He had the crisco baby thing goin' on bigtime, which will help make him a slippery little sucker in a few months (I'm sure Mom will be glad about that ...lol)...He seems to gain a couple ounces a week at this stage so that would mean he's about 1 pound 2 ounces at about 11.5" long.
So, that's about it for the weeks that I missed, without further delay, here's the current.
At 23 weeks, Baby is super active, kicking and punching Mom quite a bit. I guess at this stage they're easily excitable by just about any noise they hear...I haven't tried yet but I've read that you can hear the heartbeat through the abdominal wall without even a stethoscope.
Mom started shopping for baby stuffs and everything is just "sooooooo cute" ;o)...yeah, that's Mom talking...Me, I just see price tags and clothes...lol
But so far she has picked up some clothes and a stroller. Won't be long til I need to get him a crib. ;o)

At 25 weeks, Gloria and I have been stressin' out a bit lately...I imagine it's normal to some degree but since we're not a couple, it makes it a little tougher to cope with...Even a little squabble in the car on the way to the midwife earned a set of blood tests because of Gloria's elevated blood pressure....She's also in a bit of pain due to stretching of the muscles and ligaments that connect to the pelvis...I guess that's normal too :o\
But as for the baby, He's doing good and very very active...Growth this week is a slow and steady pace with him getting heavier rather than taller and his body is trying to catch up to the size of his head...His bone centers have begun to harden which makes him gain quite a bit of weight in a relatively short time also...So, he's now about 1'2" and weighs in @ 1 pound 14 ounces...Until next time ;o)

Oh, and on a side note: To anyone that knows what a Linux nut I am....Doesn't this have my little man's name written all over it?...lol...and Awwwww, ain't it soooo cute ;o)

At 27 weeks, I was kind of a bad daddy...I missed my first baby related appointment :(
I've been pretty stressed out for about a week and have been trying to deal with a case of insomnia and yesterday it finally caught up to me. Which means I slept through the appointment and just about every other hour that made up 4/8/05.
Gloria said the appointment was just the same routine and nothing eventful, which makes me feel a little better but up to this point I haven't missed one and I'm still a bit disappointed in myself.
Some cool stuff goes on for this week in development, Jacob opens his eyes, he obviously won't see all that much but it's still kind of cool....His weight is about 2 pounds and his length about 1' 2", got a ways to go but he's gettin there. :)
We won't say how much Mommy is up to...hahahahaha

Now at 30 weeks, I've obviously been a bit of a slacker webmaster...I've had a rough few weeks and while it isn't much of an excuse, it is the reason.
I guess my little man is one active monkey boy, constantly moving and kicking now...He probably wants out pretty bad since Gloria was sick for a couple weeks and still isn't fully recovered...According to the site I get my info from, now is around the time he starts getting ready in the head down position, not that he'll stay that way til birth considering how much he moves around though.
Also considering his size now, there isn't as much space to move around since he's putting on about 7 ounces a week...And considering what Gloria is eating, I'm surprised she isn't gaining 7 pounds a week...lol....7 ice cream cones in a day?...JEESH!!!! :)
I've already been warned that this is about the time that Gloria delivered her first son, so I guess it could happen anytime between now and July 14th So, that about where we are now, baby gettin big, Mommy doing the same and Daddy waiting for a call at work to get him the hell out of there!...lol
Oh, and I got the little linux creeper in the pic above...gonna make for some great pics for his internet debut! :)

At 31 weeks, a bunch of cool things going on in preparation for Jacob's arrival.
His lungs are developing very quickly over the next 7 days... A layer of cells are forming a lining in the air sacs to produce a liquid called surfactant that serves to prevent these air sacs from collapsing between each breath when the he begins to breathe after birth.
He also has begun to lose the hairy little crisco covered baby look (ok, to be more technical, the vemix and lanugo begins to fade :) ) and is getting soft and smooth...He's getting a little plump now as his skin begins to fill out and weighs in at about 3 lbs. 2 oz....Kinda hard to believe he'll be here in under 2 months and will have gained (most likely) about 4 pounds or more by then.

So, we're at 33 weeks now and I'm getting a little anxious...I'm pretty sure Gloria would like to deliver now and get it over with but things are going good and her blood tests and weight gain is right on the mark for where she is in her pregnancy...Actually I should say, Jacob's weight gain, since he's the one putting on almost a pound a week...He's now about 16.5" and about 4 lbs. 2 oz....Since Gloria's first son was born at about 32 weeks and weighed more than that, I think the site I'm getting my info from is underestimating a little...Anyway, He should be settling in to a head down postion and staying that way most of the time til He's born...That is, unless he wants to come in ass first :)
Well, it seems he has pretty much everything he needs when he gets here...Glorai did all of the baby shopping with the exception of the crib, which I picked up the other day...Put that together in a couple hours (fun fun fun!!!)
It was pretty cool to find out that, where she'll be delivering the baby, He stays in the room with her until they leave and will also allow me to be there 24/7 if I want too, since there's no visiting hour restrictions...Very Cool!...And the wait continues :)

At 34 weeks, my little guy felt like giving us a taste of being worried parents...We had the usual 2 week midwife appointment and his heartbeat was a little irregular, so they scheduled an ultrasound to check for problems, later in the day...I stressed out for a couple hours til then, got there and everything was cool...No problems to be found and his heartbeat was normal and steady at about 120 beats per minute.
This ultrasound was definitely cooler than the first one, considering that he's just about fully developed now and has lost his alien appearance...The only thing that bothers me is, that watching the monitor was a very cool show and seemed like we could see almost every detail but the technician took the snapshots at really bad times and of course, left us with images that make you say "what the hell am I looking at?"...lol....But she did remove all uncertainty about gender, He is in fact a He...No mistakes about that :o)
Anyway, He's probably about 5 lbs. or so now at about 18" long...Something still tells me that's an underestimation but no worries on my part, I'm not the one that has to pass him though an orifice smaller than he is...lol...We have yet another scheduled midwife appointment in the usual 2 weeks that I figure we'll be attending but highly doubt there will be one after that...gettin' exciting now!!!!

~=ULTRASOUND UPDATE=~

These are the 6/3 images...Like I said, the tech seemed to have really bad timing on when to take the shot, but oh well.

Click Image to View All

Getting ever closer, at 35 weeks...My pregnancy info site says that "lightening" (the baby drops lower into the pelvis in the head down postion) may occur right about now for first pregnancies...However, it says that subsequent pregnancies usually have this happen shortly before the onset of labor...Hmmmm, guess what!...It has happened and this is Mommy's second baby...But we're still waiting :o\
The little guy is still plumping up but I've stopped basing what I think his size is on the info site...According to the site, he's about 5.5 lbs and measures 18"...That's probably quite a bit of an underestimation...Mommy's first baby was about 5.5 lbs. at 2 months premature...I'm guessing he weighs a good pound over that.
So, all that's really left for him to do is chunk up a little and finish lung development and get here, of course....woooo hoooo!!!...C'mon little man! :o)

Well, it's still all about waiting and waiting and waiting...C'mon already, Just be born!!!
We're only 2 weeks from the due date now (I guess that puts this update at 38 weeks)...Had another routine midwife appointment the other day and yeah, it was routine...Jacob seems to be enjoying himself making us wait and sucking up the comforts of not having to put up with the world :oP
There's no point in trying to guess his size or weight, we'll know soon enough. As for Mommy, she didn't gain a pound or increase in belly size in the past week...Kinda tells me that he's all set with the growing part and is just hanging out...And all I have to say to that is, HURRY UP YA' LITTLE FREAK!!!! :o)

My little man shows his face at 10:02am on Friday, July 8th 2005!!!

Mommy, felt her water break at about 6:15am and in under 4 hours gave birth to a healthy little boy, weighing in at 9 lbs. even, 22" long and looking cute (in a Yoda sorta way :o) )
Thanks to all that took an interest in reading this page...I enjoyed sharing the experience...I hope to continue providing some entertainment through Jacob's blog, I figure there's some serious comedic value to be had blogging through the eyes of an infant and giving him an internet voice.

last update: 7/8/05

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