My Pregnancy: Week 5

Baby's now the size of an appleseed!

Your embryo (looking kind of like a tadpole) is starting to form major organs (heart, kidney, liver, stomach) and systems (nervous, circulatory, digestive).  Baby's presence in your uterus triggers production of hCG (the hormone detected by pregnancy tests)...which triggers production of other hormones like estrogen and progesterone...which trigger all those great symptoms you've probably been noticing!

It has only been a week since I took that test and confirmed that you are coming.  Crazy.  I'm beginning to get a sense of just how long these next 30 weeks are going to be.  The biggest highlight this week was that we decided to tell your grandparents, aunts, and uncles about you.  For my family, I made them all Valentine's Day cards with name tags inside that said, "Hi, my name is Aunt Annie."  For Dad's side, a simple phone call was more than enough to send them through the roof.  We weren't going to tell anyone for a while yet, but we had some insurance issues, and it was Valentine's Day, and I needed to be able to talk to someone before I exploded with joy.  No one else will know about you for quite a while though, if your grandmas can keep their mouths shut that long.

I don't kow if it was just because I knew I was pregnant, but I definitely started noticing a lot more pregnancy symptoms this week.  The biggest one was the total and complete exhaustion that set in a few days ago.  My mom (your Granny D) always told me how that was her main pregnancy symptom and it seems I inherited that.  I'd always suspected I would, but I was shocked at how hard and fast it set it.  I can easily sleep for 10 hours at night, lay around most of the morning, and still be tired in the afternoon.  If I didn't have to work, I'd be sleeping a whole lot more!

The second biggest symptom I've noticed this week is how much thirstier I am on a regular basis.  I was never a huge water drinker, but now I can't seem to get enough!  I have at least doubled (if not tripled) my liquid intake over the last week.  The downside is that also means two to three times as many trips to the bathroom; usually including at least one in the early morning hours.  Guess it is something to get used to since I've heard that will only increase as time goes by as well.

Love you Baby!