Wordy Wednesday!

What's going on? Let's see. We have to move to Chicago by the end of this month so Mike can start his job, so we're packing like crazy, trying to sublease this apartment, and figuring out how exactly this move is going to work. We have about 17,364 options on the table at this point, many of which are the result of fabulous family and friends, and so we're just trying to make the best decisions while weighing many factors. It's an adventure!

How pregnant are you? 13 weeks!

Relate this pregnancy to objects we tend to eat or other daily stuff.  Bugbear is roughly the size of a gas cap this week. Or the size of a peach. In inches, s/he is likely to be between 2.5" and 2.9" and between .66 and .85 oz.

Tell me some random stuff about the Bugbear.  Bugbear's intestines grew really fast, and so large that they wound up squishing themselves into the umbilical cord. Now they're pretty much back in his/her abdomen, which is nice. This week, those intestines will settle into place and anchor themselves, and the other digestive functions start working differently as well--Bugbear starts producing bile, his/her spleen takes over the liver in producing antibodies. Head growth slows, so that Bugbear's head will eventually take on normate human proportions; right now it's roughly 1/2 his/her entire size. Bugbear's hands are gaining dexterity, and thumbs can move separately from fingers; it's possible that s/he is even sucking his/her thumb when we're not looking. S/he is also practicing breathing, and salivary glands are starting to work. By the end of the week, Bugbear's movements will be more fluid and infant-like and less jerky. 
 
Tell me how you feel physically.  I've had some weird bouts of nausea and dizziness, but nothing horrible. I think my body is shifting from wanting protein all the time to wanting something else, but I'm not sure what that something else is. My joints sound like rice krispies a lot of the time, but no pain, just weird noises.
 
What are you craving? I don't think I'm craving anything really, but food seriously tastes out of this world good. I opened a bag of orange milanos yesterday, and I thought I was going to pass out from happiness. 
 
Are you crazy emotional? Not particularly. I notice that I'm easily irritated, but that also happens in periods of intense stress, and now is pretty stressful.

Tell me how you feel otherwise.  Much as I'm working hard at looking on our current situation as an adventure, I'm also looking forward to figuring out some major issues and eventually taking a long deep breath, followed by a long, deep five days of sleep. I hate packing. And I hate unpacking. And I so look forward to not doing either of those for a few years. In the meantime, I have some fabulous craft projects in the works, and I'm finding time to cook, work out, and do other things I enjoy, so in the end I'm simply very, very lucky.