A couple weeks ago I peed on a stick

Actually, make that 4 sticks - all of which confirmed that we are expecting a baby! Jason was not home when I took the first test. He did not get home until a few hours later. As soon as he walked in the door, I took his hand without a word, and led him to the bathroom. Along the way he asked if he had left a mess in there. I was a little too nervous/excited to laugh. I pointed to the test, and told him, "I think we're pregnant!"

His first reaction was something like, "Whoa, really???" I had caught him so off guard, since neither of us had expected this, that it took it a while to really settle in. After a few hours - and especially after a few days - he grew more and more excited as the shock wore off.

At this point, we've only told my parents and my closest girlfriends. We're very excited to tell Jason's parents and the rest of my family, but thought it would be special to wait until Christmas. Plus, Jason's parents are coming to us for Christmas this year, and we agreed we'd really like to tell them in person.

We have our first doctor's appointment on Monday, where we should get a picture of the sonogram. Our plan is to put copies of the sonogram in various frames - one for Jason's parents, one for our family's white elephant game on Christmas day (our way of telling the extended family), and one for each great-grandmother to be. I can't wait to see everyone's reaction; especially my grandma's!

According to pregnancy due date calculators online, I'm about 6 or 7 weeks pregnant, and due around August 12th, 2010. We will know more after our doctor's appointment on Monday. Here's a bit of trivia for you though. When a doctor says a woman is 6 weeks pregnant, it doesn't mean conception happened 6 weeks ago. Week one of pregnancy is a woman's last period, where her cycle starts over again. Week 2 or 3 is when conception happens. I never knew that until I started doing more research!

Most of my blog posts beyond tonight will not be this lengthly. Although I did set up this blog to share my journey as a mother to be, I also liked the idea of sharing our progress with family and friends. I signed up for weekly emails from BabyCenter.com, which gives a paragraph or two describing what's happening with the baby that week, and two pictures to give an idea of shape and size. The first picture shows the approximate size, using a seed or piece of fruit as an example and comparing it to a quarter to give scale. The second is an image of what my baby might look like this week. So below are this week's pictures and paragraphs, assuming I'm 7 weeks pregnant. Enjoy!

Week 7

The big news this week: Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs — although they look more like paddles at this point than the tiny, pudgy extremities you're daydreaming about holding and tickling. Technically, your baby is still considered an embryo and has something of a small tail, which is an extension of her tailbone. The tail will disappear within a few weeks, but that's the only thing getting smaller. Your baby has doubled in size since last week and now measures half an inch long, about the size of a blueberry.

If you could see inside your womb, you'd spot eyelid folds partially covering her peepers, which already have some color, as well as the tip of her nose and tiny veins beneath parchment-thin skin. Both hemispheres of your baby's brain are growing, and her liver is churning out red blood cells until her bone marrow forms and takes over this role. She also has an appendix and a pancreas, which will eventually produce the hormone insulin to aid in digestion. A loop in your baby's growing intestines is bulging into her umbilical cord, which now has distinct blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients to and from her tiny body.