12 weeks

Today I am officially 12 weeks pregnant, and I could not be happier to be exactly one week away from exiting the first trimester. We are still not out of the woods yet, and I realize I won't technically be out of the woods until I have a healthy baby with ten fingers and ten toes and healthy lungs in my arms hopefully around early January. But still, approaching the end of the first trimester is an increasingly welcome relief, if nothing else than the fact that I can finish my progesterone suppositories this week (yes, you heard that right, more on that later!).

Today I marked a milestone: I made my first pregnancy purchase. At Target I bought a BeBand, which is a $17 version of a much more expensive BellyBand. If you're unfamiliar with this product, it's a tight piece of stretchy fabric you wear around your waist that's designed to extend the life of your pants (and I guess it claims to work on skirts as well, though that seems more complicated). When you're more pregnant you can wear the band unfolded, and you can also wear it postpartum when you're in that weird not-pregnant-but-still-have-a-big-uterus stage, but for now I would need it folded in half over my unbuttoned jeans. Right now I can get away with wearing my favorite pair of jeans without a BeBand, but I have to say even those low-rise jeans are more comfortable with the BeBand, so I might be sporting that pretty soon after all.

My belly is definitely starting to make an appearance. Here's a quick timeline since I had my husband start taking pictures of me at week 9 (notice that week 9 is more or less what I look like normally, minus the smallest of small extra bits of flab right at my waistline):

Week 9 -- Baby is the size of an olive!

Week 10 -- a weird little pocket of flesh emerges right below my waist. Baby is the size of a prune!

Week 11 -- My belly is more rounded. Baby is the size of a lime!

Week 12 -- My stomach is most assuredly sticking out. Baby is the size of a plumb, or about 3 inches crown to rump.

I am still hiding my pregnancy at work, so these bump-worthy looks are reserved for home, dog walks and the like right now, so I am thrilled to start having something to show for this pregnancy because the first trimester otherwise feels unreal.

We will plan to start telling people outside the immediate inner circle (my closest girlfriends and our parents and siblings already know) by early July. At that point I will be at least 14 weeks pregnant, and we will hopefully by that point have back positive results from the NT scan we'll be having to test for Down Syndrome. It's a non-invasive sonogram and blood test that I'm having done this upcoming Wednesday, and I'm excited for another chance to see the baby. Then I'll deal with telling people at work, who may have to shift around a few things to accommodate my maternity leave, but oh well.

My friend who gave birth recently sent me a sweet gift of a pregnancy planner the other day. Not only was it a thoughtful gesture, but she included a wonderful card that says the following on the front: "She had never considered herself exactly perfect until right now." "She glowed pleasantly with strength and happiness." Exactly.