Introducing ... Sesame!

Five weeks in, the baby has grown to the size of a sesame seed and I've taken up the silly habit of referring to it by its size - whence, meet Sesame. Next week, we'll be talking about Lentil.

According to BabyCenter.com, this is an incredible week of development, with the nervous system and the circulatory system beginning to form. The heart should be dividing into chambers and beginning to beat and pump blood. Sesame has progressed into looking like a tadpole (I realize this may not sound like progression to some) and the umbilical cord that connects us is providing the nourishment that it needs. When I think about how quickly all of the changes are going on and how much of a difference each week makes, I am honestly floored. What an amazing process!

Today I noticed that my sense of smell seems to have become really acute. I hugged my husband when he came home from work tonight and the Tide I use to do the laundry was almost overwhelming Then we went out to dinner and I could smell the scallops on his salad from across the table. It's totally bizarre - I'm not sure what the point of all this is, but I'm just hoping it doesn't lead to nausea!

Lastly, a quick follow up to my last post - telling my parents that they're going to be grandparents again (my brother and his wife have a 15 month old) was a really fun experience and one that I hope to remember forever. I bought each one a very soft little rattle (wrapped in separate boxes) and we gave them as "random" presents. My mom was the first to get the rattle out of the box, which we told her we thought she would be able to use in January. Realizing what that meant came very quickly and my parents' happiness was apparent both in their voices and on their faces. My mom hurried my dad to finish opening his to see what his was - for a brief moment, they thought we were having twins. HA. Hugs pursued, followed by all the normal questions. How am I feeling? When can they tell people? Have we started shopping yet? (The answers, if anyone cares: tired, in 8 weeks, and no except for What to Expect When You're Expecting for me and My Boys Can Swim!: The Official Guy's Guide to Pregnancy for my husband - reviews to come.)

Two pink lines ...

I've been waiting for a reason to start blogging ... well I got my reason on Tuesday when peeing on a stick resulted in two pink lines and head to toe goose bumps. Yup, I'm pregnant.

If you had asked me before Tuesday how I would tell my husband we were pregnant, I would have said that I would do something creative and cute.

The fact is, that was way too much information to keep to myself for more than 10 seconds so I immediately picked up the phone to call and tell him the good news. I could hear the smile in his voice - meanwhile, I'm sweating profusely out of excitment, nerves, etc - and something else that I would probably call relief. We were worried getting pregnant could take a while, but two months into the "trying" process was all it took.

Now it's Friday and I've been amazed to see all of the changes in my body in such a short period of time. I've been exhausted during the day ... and constantly hungry. I swear my boobs are already bigger, not too mention sore and incredibly sensitive to the touch.

According to the handy little fertility calendar on parenting.com, I'm due on January 24. I'm four weeks pregnant and while the baby is only the size of a poppy seed, it's already made a huge impact. The hardest part so far is definitely the secrecy ... we're excited, but it's tempered excitement as we know there are so many things that can wrong right now so we don't want to tell people until the first trimester is over.

I have a feeling, though, that will be easier said than done. My husband called his parents last night - he said he just had to tell someone - and I'll admit, I called my friend Katie today to tell her the news too. My parents are next tomorrow (in person, which I'm really excited about), but then that's it for a while, we think.

Everyone that knows now has been absolutely sworn to secrecy ... now how long can we keep our little poppy-sized secret?