Week 24

How your baby's growing:
Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts her at just over a pound. Since she's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), she cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but her body is filling out proportionally and she'll soon start to plump up. Her brain is also growing quickly now, and her taste buds are continuing to develop. Her lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help her air sacs inflate once she hits the outside world. Her skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.

Wonderful News

David and Wendy are expecting their second child. They are just over two months along. They had their first doctor's appointment last week. Logan is very excited to welcome a little brother or sister into the world. However David wants to wait until the birth to find out the sex so we might just all have to hang in there until then to find out what they are having. Their expected due date is in June so he or she will be just a few months younger then Kassandra.

Next Christmas will be very exciting for our family as we celebrate the Holidays with Logan and two new little ones.

Congrats David, Wendy and Logan. We look forward in welcoming your new little one into the family.

We have picked a name

We have decided to name our baby girl Kassandra Elfriede Holloway.

Early in the pregnancy we were looking at and concentrating on boy names because we thought she was a he. Okay so we were wrong - we are all entitled to be wrong once in our lives. Anyway once we found out we were having a girl the name Kassandra Elfriede popped into my head. We continued to look through the baby name book to give other names a try. However we both really wanted the middle name of Elfriede so it was limiting the first name to names that end in 'a'. The other names on our list were great names but we still preferred Kassandra. For both of us it felt right and we loved it so we stopped looking.

Now if my mother was still here she would probably argue with us in using Elfriede, after all her and I had discussed it in the past and she said "don't do that to the poor child". It's a difficult name for most to pronounce and spell I shouldn't do that to a child. Well it was something I really wanted, and luckily for me Tom liked and wanted to do for us. Kassandra is one very lucky girl to be named after such a wonderful, caring, and loving mother and friend.

Our monthly doctor appointment

Today we had our monthly doctor appointment. It went well and the baby's heart beat is strong. The doctor kept me on limited rest to ensure the safety of the baby (she doesn't want me to go into labor early). Nothing else to report as we were in and out pretty quickly this time.

Happy Holidays

Hi All,

We wanted to wish you and your family Happy Holidays. Our home is decorated for Christmas and we are looking forward to spending the holiday with family.

We are now 6 months along and doing great! We have our monthly doctor appointment on Tuesday and hope to be completely released from "rest".

Okay so really I don't look THIS pregnant! The camera added extra weight to my stomach... I swear!

Week 23

Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango), you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

Week 22

At 11 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash) and almost 1 pound, your baby is starting to look like a miniature newborn. Her lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and she's even developing tiny tooth buds beneath her gums. Her eyes have formed, but her irises (the colored part of the eye) still lack pigment. If you could see inside your womb, you'd be able to spot the fine hair (lanugo) that covers her body and the deep wrinkles on her skin, which she'll sport until she adds a padding of fat to fill them in. Inside her belly, her pancreas — essential for the production of some important hormones — is developing steadily.

Ultrasound appointment 12/10/09

Today we had our ultrasound appointment. Early on I learned that the best way to get the baby to move is to eat candy before the ultrasound appointment. So now before each appointment I have some starburst...like the ultrasound tech stated "it has fruit in it right?". So anyway the tech had some issues in getting clear pictures this time because the baby would not hold still long enough for the tech to get the picture.
The baby is doing well. She is 15 ounces which is right on track. She was curled up (basically folded in half). Tom and I felt the baby kick earlier this week but because we now see that she is folded in half we don't know if she punched, kicked or head butted us. Either way it was a wonderful experience that we both were able to share for the first time. I am starting to feel her move more and more. She sure is one active little girl.













David, Wendy and Logan moved out this week (congrats you guys) and into their own apartment. Tom and I have been busy rearranging the house and clearing out one of the bedrooms for the nursery. Tom will paint and decorate the nursery in January when I am out of town for a weekend. I have given him full reign on decorate the nursery any way he wants. I am so excited and can't wait to see what I return home to. What do you guys think???? Will it be all OU? Or will my theme of Snoopy with clouds and moon be somewhere within his design? I guess we will all have to wait until late January to find out.

Week 21

Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long — the length of a carrot. You may soon feel like she's practicing martial arts as her initial fluttering movements turn into full-fledged kicks and nudges. You may also discover a pattern to her activity as you get to know her better. In other developments, your baby's eyebrows and lids are present now, and if you're having a girl, her vagina has begun to form as well.