Mommy Metalmouth and Her Baby Jumbo Shrimp

My mouth hurts. I know I chose this and all, and I know that I'm investing a good amount of money into it, but orthodontics is for the birds. They left my palette expander in, but I am done expanding. This is great news. They will remove that when I get my lower braces on in 6 weeks.


Until then, I look like this:



My picture-perfect orthodontist Dr. Smith (more about her at a later date...) says at least 18 months of the metalmouth. Oh goody. We'll have an 11-month old Baby Cute by then! How's that for a reality check?!


I can't decide if I wish I would have done this sooner, even as a child. There is a part of me that knows I had enough trouble being an adolescent... I don't know that adding another "odd" thing to my persona would have been good for me. At this point in my life, I'm comfortable in my own skin and don't care much what others think about me, especially my appearance. So perhaps this is the PERFECT time to get braces.

I feel really weird today, and have felt just sort of "off" for about a day now. I can't explain it, but I feel sort of buggy. I tossed and turned a lot last night (thus why I look like crap in my metalmouth pose) and chose to just stay in bed this morning until my 10 a.m. appointment. The extra sleep helped, but I can't tell you how. Oh, and I didn't do my hair either... Apparently I'm a slacker, have pity on me.


It's comforting to be able to assume that Baby Cute is ok. This week's update says the baby is about as big as a jumbo shrimp. This makes for a very interesting children's book title... or perhaps just a nice blog post title instead.


We have a nice weekend planned that I'm really looking forward to. If all goes well, I will have the motivation to lug out my spring clothes and do a little sorting and switching tonight and tomorrow to encourage spring to come on strong.


Here is my 13-week update... My belly is not conducive to having a baby belly for at least another few months, so hang in there everyone. It's also weird that my baby pees and breathes amniotic fluid. That's just a tad on the gross side for me. Anyway, I send my love to you all.


Your belly may soon be big enough to announce to the world that you're expecting, but your baby is still tiny. In fact, he's only about 3 inches long, crown to rump — roughly the size of a jumbo shrimp — and weighs just about an ounce. Despite being so small, there's a fully formed baby inside your womb now who's much more proportional than he was a few weeks ago. In previous weeks, your baby's head dwarfed the rest of him — but now his head is only about a third the size of his body. His tiny, unique fingerprints are already in place. His kidneys and urinary tract are functional, and he's starting to urinate out the amniotic fluid he's been swallowing. As you start your second trimester, most of your baby's critical development will be completed, and your odds of miscarriage drop considerably.