Peachy keen.

Baby is a peach now, which is lovely. More details below:

The fetus is now 7 to 8 centimetres long from crown to rump and weighs 23 grams -- about half a banana. Its unique fingerprints are already in place. And when you poke your stomach gently and she feels it, your baby will start rooting -- that is, act as if she's searching for a nipple. (sidenote: SAY WHAT??) If you're having a girl, she now has approximately 2 million eggs in her ovaries; she will have only a million by the time she's born. She'll have fewer eggs as she gets older, and by age 17, the number will have dropped to 200,000. As for you, the fog may be lifting, so to speak. For many women, the side effects of early pregnancy -- frequent urination, intense fatigue, nausea -- diminish sometime in the second trimester. Your uterus, while large enough to announce to onlookers that you're indeed pregnant, isn't so huge that it gets in your way. Even though birth is months away, your breasts may already start making colostrum, the fluid that will feed your baby for the first few days before your milk comes in.

I'm going to admit that much of this pregnancy miracle still creeps me the heck out. I'm sorry but it has to be said. I don't understand why the baby would start searching for a nipple if I poke at it. That is going to take all the fun out of poking at my unborn child, knowing that it's rooting around in there.

But I'm not going to focus on the negative this time. Let me tell you what joy I've discovered. Popsicles. Yes, that's right - popsicles. Or icy poles as they're called here. Lord almighty can I eat some icy poles. For some odd reason it's the cure for what ails me. Nausea goes away, thirst goes away, all my troubles seem so far away. AND did you know they make them clear now? No bright orange liquid melting all over me while I lounge on the couch and no coloured tongue to give away the fact that I may or may not have eaten three of them in an afternoon. Awesome.

Also good news is that the candy store had another stock of cinnamon & brown sugar Pop-Tarts so my murderous Pop-Tart rage has subsided for now ... FOR NOW. If they manage to import Mexican pizzas (minus the beef) from Taco Bell, I will sign over the rights to naming this firstborn child immediately to them.

Oh, speaking of naming this kid I have become obsessed. I'm really worried about giving it a terrible name. I find myself thinking of the most fantastic old lady names and really can't get past them. I think we've watched too many episodes of Golden Girls on DVD (please don't tell Marcel I ratted him out for watching with me)(shut up, that show is HILARIOUS) but I find myself things like "Blanche Eisele is pretty cute. Hmmm ... I need to have Mom find out all of our great aunts' names and email them to me ... hmmm ... what about Sofia Petrillo Eisele?" If Marcel breaks down for half a second, we are doomed to a young elderly-named girl. And then for boys all my creativity goes away - I just keep listing TV characters' names. Jack, Sawyer, Sayid, Hugo, Buster, Gob, Tobias? I'm at a loss. We have two rules: 1. No former pet names - this had to be instituted because I loved the name Theo for a boy (see! another TV name) but Marcel had a dog by that name. This also rules out half of the Cosby family thanks to the selfish Eiseles and their awesome pet-naming skills plus Tiffany, Suzanne, Jeni, Roxy, Serena, Snowy Malone, Saffron, Oreo, Gravy, Austin, Rufus & Ralph plus a million others because there have been many many pets between our two families. 2. We have unlimited veto power so neither of us gets stuck hating our child's name. We will also choose a select few of you to stand on a name committee so you can give us honest opinions to our shortlist when it's ready for judgment. I will be honest, we have one name that we are very fond of but it's a bit quirky so we're keeping it under our collective hat until we know what sex we're having. That way we never have to try it out and see the disappointment in your eyes if we don't have to. It's seriously a fantastic name and you'd agree if you weren't so stubborn and thought about it for a while!

Anyhoo, I'm exhausted and want to go to bed. I'm getting a massage tomorrow! A special pregnancy one (ooh-la-la) and it's at the fancy hotel down the street from us (ooh-la-la) so I'm very excited. This is my "woo-hoo, we made it past the 1st trimester without going crazy" present to myself.

Oh! I told everyone at work today and it was so much fun. Everyone is super excited and supportive - I love working in a company full of ladies!! Seriously, there is exactly one guy who works there and he's 20 & lovely & has already put me in touch with his sister who is due in 4 weeks herself so it's a pretty awesome company I work for.

Have a great night & I'll try to not to poke at my poor baby too much.