The Kidney Bean: Big weekend

Monday, February 13, 2006

Big weekend

Friday afternoon was the big day. My keyboard tray was pushed up against my belly, and I felt the first little flutters of life! I was writing an email to my friend Brynn when it happened. I knew immediately what it was -- no doubt about it.

I felt a couple more little flutters that afternoon, along with a few little pokes. After feeling all those pokes, I knew for sure that I'd actually felt the first movement last Tuesday. I was in bed trying to sleep when I felt a little poke followed by another weaker one. I wasn't sure, though, because it didn't feel like fluttering at all, and that's what I was looking for. I mentioned it to a coworker the next day, who assured me that it couldn't have been the baby, so I dismissed it as a muscle twitch. I didn't feel anything else until Friday afternoon.

Since then, movement has remained sporadic. Kidney Bean was active during dinner Saturday night, providing several little kicks for my entertainment. Bob seems happy about it, although I think he just thinks I'm cute for being so excited.

In general, I don't seem to feel fluttering unless something is pushed up against my belly. I only feel the more definitive pokes.

2 Comments:

At 6:44 PM, Sherri Sanders said...: So cute! Perhaps kidney bean is a future soccer player?? LOL
At 10:26 PM, Anonymous said...: Tommy was always very active whenever I was sitting on the couch typing on my laptop. I am not sure if he liked it or not. Those first few movements are wonderful aren't they. Michael I think thought it was all in my head, that is until he was finally able to feel for himself.

Danielle

Two weeks: conception occurred (during the 40 weeks of her pregnancy, a mommy is actually pregnant for only 38 weeks)
Three weeks: our kidney bean (K.B.) was a little ball of cells called a blastocyst
Four weeks: K.B. became an embryo and started making me feel queasy
Five weeks: K.B.'s heart started beating
Six weeks: K.B. started moving
Seven weeks: K.B. started to develop teeth
Eight weeks: K.B. grew to the size of a kidney bean :)
Nine weeks: K.B.'s tail disappeared
Ten weeks: K.B. became a fetus
Eleven weeks: K.B.'s webbed hands and feet separated to form fingers and toes
Twelve weeks: K.B.'s little kidneys started working
Thirteen weeks: K.B.'s unique fingerprints were in place
Fourteen weeks: K.B. and Mommy started the second trimester!
Fifteen weeks: K.B. was able to sense light through his/her fused eyelids and could move away if I shined a flashlight at my stomach
Sixteen weeks: K.B. was about 4 1/2 inches head to bottom and pumped 25 quarts of blood each day
Seventeen weeks: K.B.'s hearing began to develop
Eighteen weeks: K.B. was roughly 5 1/2 inches head to bottom and weighed seven ounces
Nineteen weeks: K.B. sprouted hair on his/her scalp
Twenty weeks: K.B. was 6 1/2 inches from head to bottom and ten inches from head to heel
Twenty-one weeks: K.B.'s eyelids and eyebrows were fully developed
Twenty-two weeks: K.B. developed teeth buds
Twenty-three weeks: K.B. was eleven inches long and weighed more than a pound
Twenty-four weeks: K.B.'s taste buds were developing
Twenty-five weeks: K.B. was about thirteen-and-a-half inches and weighed a pound and a half
Twenty-six weeks: K.B. could hear better all the time as the nerve pathways in its ears continued to develop
Twenty-seven weeks: K.B.'s brain tissues developed further
Twenty-eight weeks: K.B. had eyelashes
Twenty-nine weeks: K.B. weighed 2 1/2 pounds and was 15 inches long
Thirty weeks: K.B. weighed almost three pounds and had 20/400 vision
Thirty-one weeks: K.B. weighed over three pounds and was 16 inches long
Thirty-two weeks: K.B. grew to nearly four pounds and was almost 17 inches long
Thirty-three weeks: K.B.'s bones began to harden
Thirty-four weeks: K.B.'s central nervous system was still maturing, but its lungs were fairly well developed
Thirty-five weeks: K.B.'s kidneys were fully developed and its liver could process some waste products
Thirty-six weeks: K.B. is gaining about an ounce a day now