16th Week of Pregnancy

a lil early because technically the 16th week doesn’t start for me til this Sunday. But still….

By BabyZone’s Pregnancy Week-by-Week Contributors

In this article:
What’s Happening with Your Body
All About Baby
How Big Is Baby?
Most Common Pregnancy Questions
Multiple Madness
For Your Partner
Fun Fact

Continued from page 1

All About Baby

By week 16, your baby-to-be’s body is doing more to support itself. Her kidneys function and produce urine that then passes through the umbilical cord. Within her stomach, bile is secreted, although she relies on you for all of her nutrients. Her appearance changes as her scalp hair grows and may even have color. Her developing facial muscles make it possible for her to open and close her mouth, maybe even give you a smile or two.

How Big Is Baby?

This week, your little one is around four inches long (crown to rump) and weighs in at nearly three ounces.

Most Common Pregnancy Questions

My back really hurts! What’s going on? What can I safely do to help alleviate this pain?
Lower back pain or discomfort is a common pregnancy symptom for many women. As you gain weight and hormones loosen joints to accommodate the size of your baby, many women will complain of aches, fatigue, or even moderate to severe pain in the lower back.

There are some things you can do to lessen the severity and improve the symptoms:

Wear comfortable, supportive shoes

Continue to exercise if you have been doing so

Sleep on your left side with pillows to provide good spine alignment

Sit in comfortable, supportive chairs

Bend your knees when lifting (never lift heavy objects)

Take acetaminophen as prescribed by your doctor

Use heat or ice on your lower back

Have a massage or see a chiropractor (make sure they are trained and specialize in working with pregnant women)And, yes, you should lie on your left side. Here’s why. There is a large vessel that runs behind the uterus called the vena cava. If you lay on your back, this may compress the vena cava, compromising blood flow, which can result in dizziness or nausea. It also decreases the efficiency of blood flow to the placenta. The vena cava tends to shift to the right side of the uterus, so getting on your left side will maximize blood flow and keep you comfortable. If you have always slept on your belly, back or right side, it may feel uncomfortable at first, but you will adjust to this position quickly. Don’t panic if you wake up on your back, just readjust and get back to dreamland.

Just because it is an expected symptom of pregnancy, don’t take back pain lightly. Constant dull, low back pain can sometimes be a symptom of labor. Severe pain along with other symptoms like dizziness, vaginal bleeding, or rupture of membranes (breaking of water) should be reported to your doctor.

Fetal development in pregnancy week 16:fetus in fourth month Over the past three weeks your astounding growing baby has managed to stretch yet another 2 full inches (totaling about 4.5 inches) and weighs around 3.5 ounces. Yessireee, that’s some pretty serious growth… and with it comes several physical developments! For starters, their head to body ratio is finally starting to even out a bit as the rest of the body is actually growing faster than the head at this point. Yes, your little light bulb is not so top-heavy. Their adorable little limbs have lengthened, almost reaching their normal proportions which they will have at birth. Their eyes are still closed but moving and if you had an ultrasound, which many doctors recommend you have at about this time, you may even see your little one sucking on a thumb, not to mention the necessary signifiers to let you know whether you’ve got a wee lad or lassie.

And how’s mom doing? Along with an ultrasound, many practitioners recommend administering the “Multiple Marker Test (MMT)”, which is also known as the “Triple Screen Test”. This very common procedure checks your blood (not your baby’s) for specific protein and hormone levels as well as informing you about any potential Before you start breathing in that strained fearful way or furrowing your brow in concern, you should know that even if you do get a positive test this hardly means your little trooper is in trouble. Only about 3 to 5 percent of women yield positive results risks of genetic or birth defects. Before you start breathing in that strained fearful way or furrowing your brow in concern, you should know that even if you do get a positive test this hardly means your little trooper is in trouble. Only about 3 to 5 percent of women yield positive results and of those women, only 10 percent actually have any sort of complication to report. Obviously, a positive test from the MMT will mean further testing for you, including amniocentesis and more ultrasounds. Although this test sounds like a bit of a dud with the high percentage of false positives coming back, it’s popular because it has and can effectively identify a majority of all neural tube defects as well as babies with Down Syndrome. So despite its obvious drawbacks, you’ll still want to arrange to take the test to better prepare you and your family for the fact that anything is possible. (see BabyCenter’s page for additional information.)

make your own snowflakes

http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/

You can also see snowflakes you’ve made whenever you want. I can find some of mine from a year or so ago. You can also find friends snowflakes.  It is a very fun and addicting website I look for it every winter or when I’m board. Enjoy snow from the warmth of your desk LOL

Hope for Tecumseh

I am hoping that with Thompson’s contract coming up for renewal enough people will actually call their city council reps and let them know how they feel. I’ve seen several more on the blogs in the papers than I have in the past as well as heard more from people otherwise that are all very displeased with how he’s run things. It may be just getting him out of the city manager office for now but it is one more step towards getting him out of the utility office and hopefully healing there too. People are allready in financial binds and this is only getting worse with him in office. We have seen nothing but decline in quality of service and professionalism in the time he’s been in office. Here’s hoping that December first opens new doors for us. I will update this as soon as I hear more on it.

I’m at 12 weeks right now :D

Your pregnancy: 12 weeks

 

See the big picture

How your baby’s growing:

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.

Meanwhile, nerve cells are multiplying rapidly, and in your baby’s brain, synapses are forming furiously. His face looks unquestionably human: His eyes have moved from the sides to the front of his head, and his ears are right where they should be. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over 2 inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.

See what your baby looks like this week. (Or see what fraternal twins look like in the womb this week.)

Note: Every baby develops a little differently, even in the womb. Our information is designed to give you a general idea of your baby’s development.

How your life’s changing:

Your uterus has grown to the point where your healthcare provider can now feel the top of it (the fundus) low in your abdomen, just above your pubic bone. You may already be into maternity clothes, especially if this isn’t your first pregnancy. If you’re still fairly small and not yet ready for maternity clothes, you’ve no doubt noticed that your waist is thickening and that you’re more comfortable in loose, less restrictive clothing.

You may begin to feel heartburn (also called acid indigestion), a burning sensation that often extends from the bottom of your breastbone to your lower throat. Many women get heartburn for the first time during pregnancy, and those who’ve previously had bouts of heartburn may find that it gets worse. During pregnancy, the placenta produces a lot of the hormone progesterone, which relaxes the valve that separates the esophagus from the stomach. Particularly when you’re lying down, gastric acid can seep back up the pipe, which causes the uncomfortable burning sensation. For many women the problem doesn’t begin (or get worse) until later in pregnancy, when your growing uterus starts to push up on your stomach. The discomfort may range from mildly annoying to intense and distracting.

Sweet treat
“Instead of your morning coffee, try a cup of steamed milk with a shot of flavored syrup. Delicious — and good for you and your baby!” —Tracy

Great websites for expecting and parents

www.babygaga.com is a great one for expecting moms. You can connect with others and also get great tickers to display in emails etc.

www.babyzone.com I love this one!!! It has a calendar that tells you what week you are in to the day and then has ALOT of information whether this is your first time around or fifth. You can keep appts. on the calendar and it has a to-do list as well as widgets and lots to do.

www.babycenter.com is another good one somewhat similar to babyzone yet a lil different.

I am always finding new ones and they are keeping me busy LOL

Crazy day

Today has just been a long crazy day preceeding what looks to be a long crazy weekend. LOL The guy came out to install part of the new remote read meter system and told us that he’d had alot of other people who told him that they hadn’t recieved bills either in months. He got it set up and left. Someone else is supposed to come out and calibrate it from what I understood. I called the utility company to find out if they could tell us what our bill would be and it is 400 something dollars. Lovely. No way we could pay that even with the money we set aside. We have til the 27th before late fees kick into effect and they told us they were not doing anything as far as payment plans. I asked for them to do a reread and they said that when the guys were less busy then they could see about it prolly next week. I finally called MESA who I found out actually oversees them. They were not impressed. I don’t think they’d fully realized how bad it really was down here. When he tried to call them to discuss the situation their lines were busy. I explained that in the countywide they had a breaking news thing saying they were swamped with people that had paid thier bills after getting those duplicates and they had to go in and show that they had made payments because there was no record of it or records were not updated yet. I told him about how they had not accepted payment from us during that time period because they had no way of recording the payment. He was not impressed. Hopefully something will get done. As to the religious discussion about religion in the schools and why I chose the path I did I will get into that in another blog later on here. My fingers are cold (the house is sorta cold for me I have Reynauds related to the Lupus and it makes it hard to type)

Tecumseh Council Again Delays Considering Utility Rate Hikes

 

From the countywide….Okay why would they even bring this up right now? I”m damned glad they delayed it because to raise it when they can’t even keep things straight ….just pure ignorance. Their computer system crashes…they argue with the people who say they’ve gotten a duplicate bill for 3 months. Saying it wasn’t down that long. Hell even I know better than that. I haven’t gotten one in 3 months. The people who have the 3 months 6 week worth of service bills have PROOF on paper. They complain about people calling to ask about their bills saying that is why they can’t get anything done….people wouldn’t be calling if they didn’t have a problem in the first place. I could imagine the riot if they’d decided to go ahead and raise the rates. OMG. People are paying messed up bills if they even got a bill and they even discussed this? Makes alot of people wonder if this wasn’t a sneaky way to recieve more money? They don’t even have any accurate records??? Yes I am angry. I also noticed that this same thing (under a lil different circumstances) happened last year this time. The reason I remember so well when it happened was I had just come home from the hospital and had to plan a funeral for my trisomy 18 baby that we had just lost to find this massive bill that there was no way we could have budgeted for. Nothing will make it stand out more to someone than having a memory like that combined with it. Then here this year along with the anniversary of his death…..yep I get the utility problems thrown at  me again. Does anyone else find it fishy that they convieniently had this happen about the same time? I am thinking other people may not have noticed the timing. I sure did though. This time last year was right after the big double/triple bills people were suffering from.

Tecumseh Council Again Delays Considering Utility Rate Hikes

By Gloria Trotter

 

October was the month the Tecumseh City Council had planned to revisit the idea of raising utility rates, but citizens have won another reprieve.

City Manager Jim Thompson asked the council in June to increase water, sewer and sanitation rates about 30 percent. Thompson had been warning the council for months that utility revenues are not covering the costs of providing them, and steps must be taken. While the council members generally agreed, a couple of factors made them reluctant to institute increases at that point.

For one, electric rates had been just been increased a penny per kilowatt. Secondly, a new automatic metering system had been ordered but was not yet in place, and council members wanted to see what effect the new meters would have on revenue and the customers’ bills. Many of the old meters had not been functioning properly and were presumed to be undermeasuring actual consumption.

The issue was tabled until “at least October,” after Ward 2 Council Member Jimmy Jordan said the city’s audit should be completed by then and the new meters in operation long enough to see results.

However, neither of those things has happened. Jordan said at Monday’s monthly council meeting that there still “isn’t enough information to make a decision,” so no action was taken. There was no discussion on when the subject would be addressed again.

There was, however, plenty of other action at the meeting. The council:

€ Authorized Thompson to spend up to $40,000 to upgrade the old electric substation, which he said should have been done before now but wasn’t.

€ Authorized Thompson to spend up to $31,000 on new sidewalks for the east side of Broadway between Park and Walnut. “It will clean it up and make it look nice,” the city manager said. “We’d have to spend a third or half that much just patching (after water line work),” Jordan noted.

€ Authorized Thompson to spend up to $25,000 to trim trees around electric lines in streets and alleys which might cause power outages. “This is a BandAid on an artery we have in our community,” Thompson said. He said no trimming has been done “in years” and while $25,000 won’t take care of all the problems, “we’ll get the worst ones.”

€ Discussed problems with heavy trucks traveling city streets, usually on their way to the landfill in Brooksville. Thompson said the staff has not been able to find an ordinance prohibiting such traffic, and asked the council what they wanted to do. They seemed to agree that such trucks should be banned from city streets except for pickups and deliveries. The council will consider an ordinance at a later meeting.

€ Set trick or treat time in Tecumseh at 6-9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31. That will follow the Tecumseh Chamber of Commerce’s Downtown Trick or Treat from 3:30-5 p.m.

€ Set Fall Cleanup Day for Saturday, Oct. 18. City residents may bring trash too big for their polycarts to the public works building on Sixth Street that morning, or may take it to the Brooksville landfill.

€ Approved placing a stop sign at 8th and Maple Streets beside the band building on the middle school campus.

€ Awarded a bid to Bowen Construction for a chlorination feed system at the wastewater treatment plant. Bowen’s bid, $103,000, was the lowest of four received.

Story from countywide…

I have to say I am somewhat amused by this. Mainly because it seems clear to me they are just wanting to cover thier asses. It practically screams lets get our story straight/together . COVER UP. I think Mr. Thompson just doesn’t want to answer to the problems he greatly helped create. If they didn’t have anything to hide they wouldn’t be so worried about it.    Updated: Thursday, October 09, 2008

Tecumseh Set To Talk About Shooting Range But Who’ll Talk To The Media? By Gloria Trotter   The Tecumseh City Council covered a lot of ground in a relatively short time Monday night, but stalled briefly on issues concerning the gun range and “interaction with the media.” After considerable discussion on both, some action was taken on the gun range situation but none – yet – on a policy for talking to the media. The city-owned firing range at Tecumseh Lake was shut down last June after a few complaints and some concerns from members of the council about conditions there. The range has been leased to and operated by the Tecumseh Shooting Club for many years. The issue has been on the council agenda each month since the closure without much forward progress. The council has been stymied by the lack of regulations on such operations, and some members have indicated they’d like to close it permanently. But members of the shooting club have promised to work with the city to address the concerns. “If we’re going to have a range, we need an oversight group to develop guidelines, an ordinance,” said Mayor John Collier, who was proactive in shutting the range down. “Or do we want the council to act as that group?” “There have to be some people from the gun club as well as people from the city,” said Ward 2 Council Member Jimmy Jordan. “And there should be a police officer.” The council seemed uncertain about what to do and even discussed tabling the matter another month. Finally City Manager Jim Thompson suggested that Ward 4 Council Member Willis Faye Motley be named to the group since “her ward had some complaints.” He suggested two members from the council, two from the gun club and a police representative. Motley recalled that Charlie Price, who has been representing the gun club, was to suggest some guidelines. “The committee will need to work with that,” she said. At that point, Jordan made a motion to appoint a committee, but when City Attorney Ben McCullar asked who would be on it, Jordan said “we don’t know enough yet.” That brought on another round of confused discussion, which ended when Thompson said ordinance isn’t needed since it would be a “short-term fix.” He suggested two citizens, one gun club representative, one council member and one police officer make up the committee. Jordan agreed with that and amended his motion, which passed 4-0 (Ward 1 Council Member Trace Brown was absent). Proposed members of the committee will be named and probably appointed at the next council meeting. As for the media issue, Collier said he put that on the agenda because “we’ve run into a snag with the media – not our local media – just showing up and putting the staff and city manager on the spot.” He said he wondered if the city needs a policy “to decide who is going to interact with the media.” The other council members seemed somewhat reluctant to go in that direction. “The police chief spoke to the media last week,” observed Motley. “Was there a problem with that?” “No,” the mayor replied. “I’m concerned with limiting it,” said Vice Mayor Linda Praytor. “I do not think one person is capable of speaking for the city.” “That’s not what I’m saying,” said Collier. “Do we want people saying things that are not the position of the city?” McCullar warned the council to “be careful” about adopting such a policy because “it could come back to haunt us.” But, he added, “I think we should have a policy.” Media “interaction” apparently became an issue after Thompson discovered an Oklahoma City television station “set up in the city clerk’s office – those are the things that go on. I’m never going to interview with TV again.” The city manager said that was because one interview he granted was edited to the point that it was not accurate. “I do have an Irish temper,” Thompson said. “I don’t like a camera shoved in my face.” Praytor suggested that the city attorney check with other cities to see “what they’re doing.” Motley said she agreed “we need to address it, but we need somebody who knows what he’s doing.” No action was taken since it was on the agenda for discussion only

A great site to check out …

for halloween if you are extremely bored and/or if you have an interest in the paranormal. I first found the site when goofing off on the web and I liked the way they used to have it set up better. They have webcams set up in places that are suspected of being haunted so that people who like to view these can do caps of things that they find in there and post them. THe families that live in these places sometimes visit and comment on the postings and post things of their own. Kinda like reality tv I guess. It is interesting but now you have to click on which cams you want it to show. I guess because they’ve added several. Some are of more famous places and some are just of family homes where people have experianced hauntings. In anycase wanted to share it.

www.asylumcam.com (I’m not sure if it is still there but there was one from Oklahoma an old hospital that had several cams on it …the farm house is pretty cool too.)

Update on Tecumseh Utility

 

 

I thought I’d add this one to this blog.

 

I thought maybe i was the only one going through the experiance of not existing on their computers because of the liheap thing but apparently there are others now too. Even WITH our account number they have nothing and told us to keep the money for now. If our records don’t exist and theirs are so messed up what about their actual business records. Besides the customers… the other records? For a company that has been complaining of being so in the hole what is going to happen now? They aren’t acceping money from alot of people because the records are gone. Not that i can’t use the money I am thinking though how much do I set back? How much am I going to be billed later and how do I know it is accurate since no one was reading meters? They didn’t even bother attempting having someone read the meters and then document it some other way rather than via computer from my understanding. Really getting suspicious. Lets just say we may be hearing more on it soon and hopefully more will come to light on the subject. I do feel for the ladies in the office but something is wayyyyyyyy off here.