Potential

You know those one-word motivational posters that were super trendy a few years ago? I may be a little late to the game, but I have an idea for another one.

Lately, I really have been seriously thinking about how desperately I need to give up Cherry Coke and actually put forth some effort toward losing weight. (Just a moment, while I sip from the Cherry Coke that's right next to me.) It occurred to me this morning that it was this Tuesday, the last week of January, last year when I attended a Weight Watchers meeting with my friend Emily (see Flip Flop Family blog to your right). That means it was also this week that a home pregnancy test confirmed what I kind of suspected, but was in complete denial about (hence, I joined WW on Tuesday and had a positive pregnancy test on Thursday). Well, my motivational poster about potential doesn't have anything to do with weight loss, but thinking about Weight Watchers is what made me think about this week a year ago. How amazing is it that in one year's time, this:

How your baby's growing:

What's going on in your womb now? A lot. Your baby-in-the-making is just a tiny ball consisting of several hundred cells that are multiplying madly. Once the ball of cells (called a blastocyst) takes up residence in your uterus, the part of it that will develop into the placenta starts producing the pregnancy hormone hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), which tells your ovaries to stop releasing eggs and triggers increased production of estrogen and progesterone (which keep your uterus from shedding its lining — and its tiny passenger — and stimulates placental growth). HCG is the hormone that turns a pregnancy test positive; by the end of this week, you may be able to take one and get a positive result! (If your test is negative and you still haven't gotten your period in two or three days, try again then.)

Meanwhile, amniotic fluid is beginning to collect around your ball of cells in the cavity that will become the amniotic sac. This fluid will cushion your baby in the weeks and months ahead. Right now, your little blastocyst is receiving oxygen and nutrients (and discarding waste products) through a primitive circulation system made up of microscopic tunnels that connect your developing baby to the blood vessels in your uterine wall. The placenta won't be developed enough to take over this task until the end of next week. (copied and pasted from babycenter.com)

had the potential to become this:

Even the monthly photo project documenting Bristol's growth from birth to 12 months pales in comparison to thinking about how much she has changed and grown already- from a "tiny ball of rapidly multiplying cells" to that sweet baby you see in those pictures. Maybe "potential" isn't the right word for my poster either. Miraculous. Mind-blowing. Awe-inspiring. See? It's hard to even get it down to just one word! Either way, I'm awfully glad that tiny ball of cells continued to multiply and become Bristol Margaret.

And oh good grief. Now that I've got myself thinking these kinds of thoughts, I'm thinking about how, with all of my fall babies, it was pretty much nine years ago that a ball of cells had the potential to become this (these just happen to be the most recent pictures I have of each of them):

And eight years ago, that a ball of cells had the potential to become this:

Five years ago...

Three years ago...