A blogger's work is never done

Geez, so much pressure, so many requests for new posts. Granted, I may have been remiss in my posting, but as I told Vojta, you can't rush the creative process! Anyway, I'm back on the job, and hopefully you can look for a slew of good stuff here in the next week or so. No promises!
First, let's talk about the Donger. I'm 17 weeks along now. Here's a picture of Sam at 17 weeks.
According to my Your Pregnancy Week by Week book, she's "4.4 to 4.8 inches. Fetal weight has doubled in 2 weeks and is about 3.5 ounces. By this week, your baby is about the size of your hand spread open wide." (There they go again, assuming they know how big my hand is.)
But, BabyCenter.com says, "Your baby weighs about 5 ounces now, and he's around 5 inches long — about the size of a large onion. He can move his joints, and his skeleton — until now rubbery cartilage — is starting to harden to bone. His sense of hearing is also developing. The umbilical cord, his lifeline to the placenta, is growing stronger and thicker."
And, PregnancyWeekly.com says, "Your baby is now up to about 6.5 ounces, and should weigh more than the placenta from this point on. Since hearing is more 'fine tuned,' your baby may respond to loud noises. You may feel movement at the sound of large trucks passing or a slamming door."
Apparently, nobody really knows how big this little sucker is. It's sort of like all the stuff my body is doing, which all the sources I've read explain by saying, "it's hormones." As anyone I've talked to recently knows, this is a major gripe of mine. I know it's hormones! But what are they doing? Working overtime. No kidding! I'm so much more enlightened about pregnancy now than I was when I was 13.
So, now for the updates. I felt the Donger move a couple weeks ago (when he was 15 weeks, exactly). I wasn't sure I felt it at first. We were on our way down to Louisiana to visit my parents and I was driving. It felt like something rolled over and kicked my on the way around. It was down in the area of my abdomen where we had heard the heartbeat at the doctor's office a couple weeks earlier. It's happened a couple times since then, usually when I'm trying to sit like I used to, with my legs scrunched up close to my chest. I guess he doesn't like being crowded or something.
My doctor referred me to an orthopedic surgeon to check out my scoliosis. I guess I'm not just a big wuss, and my back shouldn't be hurting this early ... if I was normal. So, he said I'll definitely have to wear a pregnancy belt (sort of like a bra for your belly), and the orthopedist might decide to prescribe a brace for my back too. I'll be like robowoman. It'll be sort of cool.
Also, we went to go look at/register for baby stuff yesterday. It was, quite possibly, one of the most mentally exhausting experiences of my life. We had a book that actually told us what we'd need, what we didn't need, and even what brands to buy, and we still spent three hours discussing pros and cons of car seats, playpens, cribs and strollers. I haven't felt that uninformed since I started college and realized that I was probably the dumbest person in the school. There's stuff out there that I wouldn't be able to dream up in my wildest pregnancy dreams. Like these cups that fit over your boobs to collect the milk you'll leak in between feedings (yuck, I know). Or, well, mostly it was the breastfeeding stuff that blew my mind. I won't go into the other contraptions involved. That's going to be an adventure.
More adventures coming soon...tune in again for baby's heartbeat, pictures, and (just to keep Angela happy) actual stats regarding my weight and width gain ... lots of fun for all involved, I'm sure.