A Big Milestone - 14 Weeks. . . .

14 weeks is a big milestone for baby and me. It means that we are now in the second trimester. The best is yet to come (said by my favorite singer Frank Sinatra). At 14 weeks the baby is sprouting hair on top of its cute head, eyebrows and body. This hair is called lanugo. It develops its own furry blanket. The body hair is not permanent, it’s just meant to keep little baby warm. This is good because it has been COLD here this last week. The baby should be 3 ½ inches long from head to bottom. This is about the size of an avocado.

I had another doctor’s appointment this week. My doctor did not take any new pictures of baby but I was able to hear baby’s heartbeat again. It was beating 152 beats per minute. This is good. And it was moving around a lot! I could hear the movements through the Doppler. They say that in the next few weeks I should be able to feel baby moving in my tummy. But I haven’t felt it yet. The only thing I am feeling right now is a lot of cramping. I think this is due to the stretching of my stomach muscles and growing of my uterus. But my doctor wants me to drink LOTS of fluids . . . .over 2 liters a day and I am to go back in the office in 2 weeks to re-evaluate my cramping. I was given a referral to get a full ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby! Yes, Johnathon and I will find out the sex of the baby. We will find out between 18-20 weeks. So in about a month everyone will know whether we can call this baby a she or he!! And we can start to figure out what we need to buy for the nursery!! I am very much looking forward to getting started in buying stuff for our little Muchow.

On a sad note, while we were in Florida, our poor little puppy hurt himself. His leg muscles are so strong that when he was jumping around playing with a cat he pulled his leg muscle away from the growth plate in his leg bone. He had to have surgery and is now moping around the house with an ugly cone on his head. The orthopedic doctor that did his surgery thinks that he will heal just fine. He’s a tough dog.

Johnathon has started student teaching this week. He will pretty much be student teaching every day until school is out. . . .busy boy. I had the last 8 days off of work, not by choice but because our union had gone on strike again. Now that Obama has been re-elected the hospital is freaking out about the Affordable Care Act and how it will affect the hospital financially. It’s a scary time right now for us nurses that work for Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Administration wants to reduce our benefits, not give us any raises and reduce staff to cut costs. What I have been told is that nurses haven’t had a raise in our hospital in the last 2 years. I feel blessed that we have such a strong union. Out of 600 nurses that work at the hospital, 436 voted to go on strike against the hospital and 4 nurses voted to not strike. This is a pretty strong number. Go SNA!!

All my love to our family! Until next week. . . .