A Preggo Friend

For those of you who don't know my place of employment is in a baby boom. Of ~150 employees 16 babies were born last year. We are on track for 14 for this year including husbands. So there is a woman in our office that many have suspected is pregnant with number 2. She went out of town for ~3 weeks and we all speculated while she was away.

Well she was the first person I saw at work today and she came up and congratulated me. I looked down and congratulated her right back. She is a mere 10 days further along than I am. I am so excited! I have someone who is pretty much at the same stage. I was so jealous of all the women last year who were due within weeks of each other. They could talk about what they were going through and complain about their aches and pains. I wasn't sure I would have someone like that.

Oh by the way out of all the new moms at work only 1 of them threw up. The others were just nauseated, some pretty bad, but still 1??? Oh man! Maybe #2 will be better....... Oh wait... I have to make it through #1 first!!

12 weeks

The most dramatic development this week: Reflexes. Your baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, his toes will curl, his eye muscles will clench, and his mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. His intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into his abdominal cavity about now, and his kidneys will begin excreting urine into his bladder. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over two inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.

Food for thought

Last night I had a rough one that made me ill all evening. It got me thinking about what the worst thing to throw up is. Since I have had the joy of doing so much of it lately. I will start:

1. Sweet and salty mix-Sunflower kernels pummeling you in the tonsils is not pleasant and leads to much more gagging due to small lodged kernels.

2. Egg salad-total texture nastiness

3. Graham crackers-too sweet smelling

4. Bile-no explanation needed

Go ahead and add the worst things you have experienced in the comments....

11 Weeks

Your baby, just over 1 1/2 inches long and about the size of a fig, is now almost fully formed. Her hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under her gums, and some of her bones are beginning to harden. She's already busy kicking and stretching, and her tiny movements are so effortless they look like water ballet. These movements will become more frequent as her body grows and becomes more developed and functional. You won't feel your baby's acrobatics for another month or two — nor will you notice the hiccupping that may be happening now that her diaphragm is forming.

Stop Kissing Pigs!

I am taking a time out from discussing being pregnant to have a commentary on the "Swine Flu "Pandemic"". This is a time that being a scientist drives my annoyance with the over-hype in the media. I understand that the CDC and the government want to be cautious and closing down the schools is the safest thing to do. However, it just adds to the intensity of the situation and the mass hysteria that is occurring. Mass hysteria that we can't even determine if it is justified at the moment since there is only 1 death at the moment out of a growing number of confirmed cases. UPDATED: The seasonal flu kills 36,000 in the US yearly... hmmm

Just an indication of the complete ignorance in worrying here are results posted from the Harvard School of Public Health.

But that same Harvard poll shows that 17% of participants said they are avoiding Mexican restaurants or grocery stores and 13% said they thought you could get swine flu from eating pork. You can't get swine flu from eating pork or any other foods, and there is no reason to avoid Mexican restaurants or other businesses.

Let's educate the masses instead of scaring them!!

So today here is a good list I found on WebMd.com today

7 Reasons Not to Over Worry

After a solid week of scary headlines about swine flu, it's time to take a step back, take a deep breath, and regain perspective. Here are seven points to consider:

1. Most swine flu cases have been mild, so far. Severe cases have been seen mainly in Mexico, for reasons that aren't yet clear. But most swine flu patients have recovered without being hospitalized.

2. You're not defenseless against swine flu. Simple things -- washing your hands, not touching your mouth, eyes, or nose, and trying to avoid close contact with sick people -- can go a long way toward reducing your risk.

3. Most swine flu cases so far have been pretty much like normal, seasonal flu. Swine flu and seasonal flu share symptoms, and spread the same way.

4. How much do you worry about seasonal flu? Maybe you should give garden-variety flu a little more respect. In a typical U.S. flu season, an average of 36,000 people die of flu or flu complications, and about 200,000 people are hospitalized. Swine flu hasn't come anywhere close to that.

5. Swine flu's future is unknown. No one knows where swine flu is headed -- for better or for worse. "You don't know if it's going to fizzle out in a couple weeks or become more or less virulent or severe in the diseases it causes," CDC Acting Director Richard Besser, MD, said on April 29. "If we could see into the future [that] would be absolutely wonderful, but that's not the case. That's why we're being aggressive" in seeking to limit swine flu's impact on human health.

6. The world is more prepared than ever. Remember bird flu? When that was the "it" virus several years ago, the global health community ramped up its pandemic preparations. As a result of that work, "the world is better prepared for an influenza pandemic than at any time in history," WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said on April 29.

7. Pandemics aren't all deadly." If the World Health Organization declares swine flu a pandemic, that's all about the spread of the virus -- not the severity of the illness. In the past, some pandemics have been mild, while others have been severe, notes WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl, adding that "people should act with common sense, not with panic."