Tax Season is OVER!

YAY! Tax season is over. I have my husband back until the next deadline. I'm not in a very good mood today, so I'm keeping the post short. I'll do better tomorrow.

Hoot Hoot

We have owls that live around the house. They make quite a racket! Anyway, Noel took these pictures last night. These are not great pictures but you can blame that on Dumb and Dumber. They kept scaring the owl away. Last year, we saw a big owl and two little babies sitting in the branches near each other. The little owls looked like exact copies of the big owl. So cute. We have abundant species of creatures flying around here. We'll have to get out there and start taking pitcures!

Thirteen Weeks!

Crown to rump length is 2.5-3 inches and weight is about .5 and .75 oz. It is about the size of a peach. The uterus fills the pelvis and is starting to grow upward into the abdomen. The baby has doubled in length from 7 weeks. There is a relative slowdown in the growth of the baby's head. Right now the head is about half of the crown to rump length. By birth the head is .25 size of the body. External genitalia have developed enough so male can be distinguished from female outside of the womb. Intestines initially develop within a large swelling in the umbilical cord outside the fetal body. About this time, they withdraw into the fetal abdominal cavity.

Our New Additions

This is Noel's pet project. He's planting shrubs and they look fabulous! These are English Boxwoods. They're just wee little now but I know they'll look great when they reach shrub size. I can't believe we went so long without any plants in front of our house. The problem is the deer eat everything. But these Boxwoods are supposed to be deer resistant. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Oh yeah, and the lovely white fence is to keep Dumb and Dumber away from the plants. I bet it it wouldn't take them a whole day to destroy the shrubs!

Boo Martinsburg

I'm in Martinsburg for the night due to a protest hearing tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I don't get paid enough to spend the night out of town. I get comp time to use whenever I want for the hours after work hours, but it has to be earned traveling or working. I can't get comp time for the time spent in the room, though I wouldn't be in this room by myself if not for my job. Spending time in a hotel room by myself is not my idea of a great time. Driving 5 hours to get to a hearing is not a great time either. While driving, I got a cramp in my leg you wouldn't believe. Oh well, enough complaining. I'll update with something better tomorrow.

Oh Baby!

This is from today's ultrasound. It wasn't at my usual doctor's office so I don't have the pictures on a disk like normal. I had to take a picture of the picture. Anywho, the top pictures are the baby's head and neck and chest. The bottom picture is the baby facing downward. The prominent little L in the middle of the picture is the baby's arm. I imagined that my cyst went away but it's still there. The good news is that is hasn't grown. I should have included a picture with the cyst on it because it's amazing how big it is, but if you check out the bottom picture and look right above it to the picture cut in half, that big black hole that you can see is the cyst. It's as big as the baby! Or maybe even bigger! It'll dissolve I know it.

Second prenatal visit

I went back to the doctor today. All's well! I listened to the heartbeat today with some kind of high powered stethoscope. This time the heartbeat was 165 bpm. Mainly, during this visit we just talked. They did test a urine sample and that came out good too. One thing we talked about was cystic fibrosis. There is a blood test that can determine if you are a carrier of the gene. So after my doctor appointment I went to the lab in the hospital and had my blood drawn for the test. Unfortunately, I have little, piddly, hard to find veins. So every time I give blood I get nervous. I've had a lot of mess ups and I won't even include some of the disasters at the Red Cross. So anyway, the nurse sticks me and no blood. I immediately tense up and feel nauseous. Oh by the way, did I mention that I don't like blood and I HATE veins? So, with the needle hanging out of my arm, the nurse goes to find the master sticker, Rita. Rita tried to get blood to no avail. She takes the needle out and tells me she has to try the other arm. Bummer, because the arm I offered up was actually the good one. Anyway, she ties me off with the rubber string, I make a fist, and she goes about finding a vein. She's poking around and she's poking clear on the side of my arm--not even close to where you think the vein is. That's where she found the vein. GROSS! She stuck me and she got it. Yay Rita! Thank goodness they only needed one vial, but it was a huge vial. It did leave a bruise but, in Rita's defense, I bruise easily. So they put gauze and tape (which practically ripped off my skin) on both arms. So now we just wait. If I come back a carrier then Noel will have to go and see if he is a carrier. You can't have a baby with cystic fibrosis unless both parents are carriers. The next appointment is Friday and that involves an ultrasound so Daddy is going to that visit. He hasn't seen the baby or heard the heartbeat yet. It should be an exciting visit!