Kenley and Cooper's Blog

We had fun this week telling the Brehm and Gedney families about Peanut! Everyone is excited to be great-grandparents, great-aunts and -uncles, etc. - although I think mostly excited to tease Rachel and to poke her big belly when they see her. Here's what Peanut is up to this week: Slightly more than two inches long now and weighing about a third of an ounce, your fetus is growing by leaps and bounds when you are 11 weeks pregnant . And so is his or her head, which is equal in length to the rest of the body (don't worry — all fetuses are top-heavy). On the crown of that large head (and over the rest of the body), hair follicles are forming. Fingernail and toenail beds begin to develop this week and by next week, the nails themselves will start to grow (so don't forget to add a baby nail clipper to your to-buy list). Your baby's body is straightening and his or her torso is lengthening (sounds like a yoga pose, doesn't it?). Other poses your baby can assume now: st...

Today we were off to visit Cathleen the midwife for our first real visit!!!! In addition to checking everything out and letting us know everything looks great, Cathleen had us listen to Baby's heartbeat! It was wonderful to hear a healthy heartbeat and to know that there really is someone inside there. (And no, she couldn't tell us if there was more than one baby). We also scheduled an ultra sound and blood test for next Thursday (2/5), just to check that everything is going well! If there is anything weird going on (like twins), we'll find out then! All in all, we had a great visit, and confirmed our love of the Swedish midwives, as our first visit was nothing but wonderful. After our appointment, we finally called Michael's Oma and Opa to break the news. They were both very excited, despite our assurances that they were much too young to be great-grandparents! We can't wait to tell the rest of the family, but are not sharing quite yet!

Peanut officially hit the 10 week mark this weekend! Here's our progress per What to Expect When You Are Expecting: Your baby's growth is fast and furious when you are 10 weeks pregnant . He or she is nearly an inch and a half long and the size of a prune, but not nearly as shriveled (even with all the time it spends in water). In fact, your baby is really taking a human shape now. Bones and cartilage are forming, and small indentations on the legs are developing into knees and ankles. The arms (complete with elbows) can flex already, but don't run to the store for a baseball bat just yet. Though your baby's arms are taking shape and getting stronger, each one is only about the size of this number 1. The tooth bud fairy is making her appearance this week, heralding the arrival of your baby's little choppers, which are forming under the gums. (Those pearly whites won't break through the gums until your baby is close to six months old). Other systems are go, too...

Today we did our first "meet and greet" with one of the midwives at the Swedish Midwifery. We were very excited about our visit! This meeting was just a chance to get to know the practice and ask any questions we had in deciding if we wanted to use them as our practitioner. We met with Kathleen, one of the three midwives who we will work with at the practice. Any one of them will be present at the birth, so we will get to know them all. Kathleen confirmed the due date we were thinking, which is August 23. She was very sweet and knowledgeable! We both had a great feeling after our conversation with her. here's some info about Swedish Midwifery. http://www.swedish.org/body.cfm?id=1938 Here's some info about Swedish Ballard's birth center: http://www.swedish.org/body.cfm?id=479&oTopID=20 We will tour the birth center February 8. Next Tuesday will be our first visit for testing, etc. We are hoping we might be able to listen for a heartbeat!

We're pregnant! We received the news via the little pink pee stick on December 23 while on vacation with Rachel's mom and dad. We immediately named him or her Peanut, based on our theory that he or she was probably about the size of a peanut at that time (although we were probably wrong). We were able to share our news with Beth, Bert, Michal, Jason, Meg, Karin, Richard, Ryan, James and Miles on December 24! Other than that, we are keeping quiet until we hit the 12 week mark just to make sure Peanut is safe and sound before he or she becomes public knowledge. Everyone was very excited with our little Christmas gift.