Week 16: Gerbil baby

I totally skipped the Week 15 update. One reason was that I was off on my babymoon and not really thinking about exactly what was going on in there. I figure Baby was happy getting sunshine and fresh pineapple. Another reason was that the update from Fit Pregnancy was kind of generic and not worth sharing.

Week 16, on the other hand, seems a little more exciting. My e-mail newsletter from Fit Pregnancy tells me:

"Your baby weighs about 2.8 ounces (79 grams) and is about 4 1/2 inches from crown to rump—roughly the size of a small gerbil. At any time, you will begin to feel fetal movement as your baby's bones harden, and she starts a big growth spurt. Your baby has plenty of room: At this point, she could fit in the palm of your hand. This is a great time to be a fetus. At any given time, she might be playing with the umbilical cord (which she's now able to grasp), putting her thumb in her mouth, or kicking at the amniotic sac."

I'm not going to get too anxious if I don't feel the movements of a 2.8 ounce gerbil inside me. It's probably already shown some movement that I just attributed to gas. There's plenty of that -- something nobody told me about before I got pregnant.

At the library this weekend, I picked up "The Real Deal Guide to Pregnancy." Other than, "You: Having a Baby," it's the only pregnancy guide I've read. It's filled with advice from real moms and not overloaded with horror stories. The best part of the book is that it says there's no such thing as a normal pregnancy. That doesn't stop me from comparing myself to the women in the book and worrying when things aren't happening that the book says may be happening.

I'm working on not worrying about worrying so much. Worrying is what I do.