12 Weeks

The baby is the size of a lime this week and weighs about a half of an ounce. The big development is the reflexes. The fingers and toes are beginning to curl, the eyes will start to flinch, and the mouth is beginning to make sucking movements. The baby will react to me pushing on my belly but I can't feel it yet.

I'm always so fascinated when I get my weekly updates. Each week the baby looks more like a baby. My belly is growing, which just seems like a lot of fat to me, but I learned this weekend that it does not become that beautiful hard swollen belly until much later. I am officially rubberbanding my pants. Tomorrow is my last day of school and then I will be moving into elastic shorts and sweatpants. Even though it doesn't look like what I thought it would when it started to grow, I love seeing it get bigger. I rub it and know that my little baby is swimming around in there. I've still been feeling pretty good. My appetite is increasing although I'm still not much on meat. I do have to eat every so often or I notice it and get weak, sick, dizzy, or all of the above. It's hard to remind myself to eat when I'm not hungry to prevent myself from getting to that point. I got our first pair of baby booties from Michael's grandma's sister. They're lying here on the desk and I look at them and picture the little toes that will fill them in 6 months.