Week 13

Well, we are on to week 13.
This week, Baby Bean is the size of a peach, and doing some amazing things!!

Baby Bean's own unique finger prints are now fully in place (unbelievable!!). Also, by this time the sex genitalia are fully formed and visible, but may still be difficult to see in a ultrasound. But, continuing with that vein of thought, if Baby Bean is a girl, she already has 2million eggs!! By the time she is born that number will decrease to 1million, and by the time she is 17 that number will decrease to about 200K, but that's still a lot of eggs if you ask me!

Also, during this 4th month, Baby Bean will triple in size and quadruple in weight!!! We are heading into the big growth spurts now.

Also, Baby Bean's vocal chords are fully formed. Which, led me to cry the other night when it occurred to me that when Baby Bean is born and cries for the first time, that might actually not be the first time he/she cries. I mean, he/she will more than likely cry while in my belly -- that thought breaks my heart. I'm doing the best I can to make sure that Baby Bean is safe, happy, and growing as healthy as possible -- I don't want him/her to cry, especially when I can't hear it to do anything about it. This thought totally broke my heart when it occurred to me. And, when I shared it to Pablo (not to put him in a bad light or anything), he being ultra-pragmatic and literal said, "Anna, crying requires air to move through the vocal chords, and right now the baby is no breathing air, but getting oxygen from the water in the womb"... My reaction to this was to spat back "while that is a total rational explanation, how the hell do you know?!"

Anyways, I have since accepted the fact that I'm doing the best that I can, and if Baby Bean is going to cry, then we will just have to deal with that when he/she comes out.

Hope you guys enjoy these updates!!

Also, i will soon be posting some updates that I have been checking off my list for the house (it is finally coming together little by little). So, stay tuned for those as well.

Official Annoucement

Hello Friends!

Well, most, if not all, of you have heard the big news, but we are now making it officially public news...

Pablo and I are very much, 100%, no kidding around, pregnant! We are 13 weeks along (we found out 2 months into it).

As many of you know about me, I have never been crazy, or even sold on the idea of having children. In fact, ironically, the 2 months while we were unknowingly pregnant Pablo and I fought more about if we would ever have children (me being on the "let's not" side) than our entire last 2 years of marriage. So, needless to say, these few weeks have been a time of MAJOR adjustment.

I will tell you though, things are going very very well. We are growing steadly more and more excited about the arrival of Baby Bean (due Feb. 22, and named "Baby Bean" because when we discovered that we were pregnant, the baby was the size of a kidney bean). We heard the heartbeat last week which shattered my world almost -- still cannot fathom that I am sustaining a life, it makes my life that much more vital to maintain! -- but hearing the heart beating so fast in my belly, that sound has kept me a bit anchored in the reality that yes we are pregnant, no I am not just putting on a ridiculous amount of weight in my mid-section, and yes, in 9 months, I'm pussing a watermelon out of my very tiny body...

But serisouly, I think the most miraculous thing about being pregnant (aside from being nearly impossible to comprehend on a day-to-day basis) is that I have started to fall very much in love with this tiny life inside me. My world is shifting. My dreams have not changed, but they will definitely be delayed, and oddly enough, I'm more than ok with that. These are miraculous things to be coming out of my mouth friends -- afterall, I'm very selfish (another thing this baby is already teaching me -- stupidly I have gotten frustrated at it being inside me simply because its presence means no sushi, something I am NOT fond of at all!!).

So, without any further ado, I would like to introduce you to the newest Otaola in the making, week by week as we both grow! (sorry, I only have the last couple weeks of photographs on my computer at work, which is where I am, so that is all you get at the moment).



Week 11: Baby Bean is the size of a strawaberry -- this week the arm and leg joints began to form and work

Week 12: Baby Bean is the size of a lime -- this week (end of the first trimester) the Bean began to move his/her limbs (i didn't feel it though), his skin began to respond to touch!, her intestines that were previously in the umbilical chord (who knew!) began to move into the abnominal cavity, his eyelids began to grow and fuse together, she is swollowing, and he is pancrious is beginning to secrete urine which is released into the amniotic fluid! Baby Bean has been hard at work!!!

This week is Week 13 -- stay tuned this weekend for the newest picture and developmental updates!!

Love you guys!

Electric Bill

The last couple of months our electric bill has been exorbidantly high and definitely was not helping our pocketbook at all. I started examining our bill because I didn't think we used significant more electricity in the last 2 months. Turns out that our bill was now being "estimated" not given an actual read. What normally is about $50-$70/month in the summer was $160 2 months ago and $120 last month. Anyways, I figured out how to read our meter myself and report the usage online... our bill is only $70 this month!

ridiculous! how much money are these compies making off of people who aren't paying any attention?!

Anyways, it may sound like a stupid thing to blog about, but that just made my day.