26 Weeks Today ~

At long last, your little swimmer can see the womb! Your miracle’s little eyelids have finally separated (they were fused closed previously) and they’re probably having their first moments of sight as you read this (or maybe it already happened while you were brushing your teeth or watching Oprah or something). In addition to seeing their little studio in your belly, they’ve recently acquired the ability to say “yes” and “no” in rudimentary sign language as they can now move their head back and forth. This is also the time where your little super star’s head hair is starting to grow! A cute little cowlick or two may be springing into position right now, getting ready for years of cute-but-stubborn bed-head. Also, their toenails have grown in and you little raisin continues to slowly pile up fat beneath their still-loose skin. Most importantly, brain tissue and neurons are all developing at a rapid pace, increasing their (genius-level?) brain activity and will continue to function at accelerated levels for the first seven to eight years of childhood!

The only thing that has been going on this week is I have been making lists of what we still need. I have been a finatic about checklists, but they help.

25 Weeks Today ~

Your little grower’s physical proportions are evening out at this point and most of their remaining development will largely be weight gain and lots and lots of nervous system development. The good news is: if your child is born premature now they’ll be more likely to survive without too much trauma as their lungs began to produce “surfactant” last week, which means their tiny respiratory system is getting stronger with each passing day. Yes, now’s a good time for a minor sigh of relief and a quick pat on the back. All that hard work and conscientious living is really getting your child prepared for a healthy delivery. Keep up the fabulous work mama! This week they’ll be scootching slowly out of the old breech position and start rotating (already!) into a better position for exit during their birth. Their head and feet are slowly rotating so that the head is pointed down towards the birth canal. Time is short (or really long, depending on who you ask)—just (still!) 14 weeks left before you can go back to being a single-resident human.

Biggest thing this week, Jared finally got to feel the baby move. He kicked 3 times in a row for his Daddy. It's very nice that he has been able to experience that with me now. It has been pretty cool to just sit at night and watch my belly move. Our 2 1/2 year old nephew was really cute the other day. My sister asked him what Aunt Amy & Uncle Jar Jar are having and he gets really excited and says "baby boy", then he tried to lift up my shirt to see the baby. They will have a lot of fun together.

24 Weeks Today ~

This is another big week for your magical growing baby! Just take a look at the checklist for this week: 1) ears: done; 2) fingernails: done; 3) (if you have a boy) testicles: taking their 3-4 day trip from the abdominal wall to the scrotum; and 4) lungs walls: secreting “surfactant”. What’s that? Well, surfactant is sort of what it sounds like: a surface-activated fat whose main purpose is to assist the your baby's little lungs during inflation (as in, filling with air, not getting more expensive). Just in case you’re curious, your submerged baby is still breathing in amniotic fluid, preparing and rehearsing the lungs an oxygen-filled life outside the womb. By the end of this week, your child will be weighing around 2 lbs and 14 inches long. Your cutie-patootie may even be a little more plump, but isn't anywhere near their full baby-fatted cute-self. Most of the “filling out” is coming up in that long awaited (and slightly dreaded?) third trimester. Woo-hoo! Get ready!

Not much has gone on the past week. We are probably going to work on a few things this weekend since it is suppose to rain here. We have started to look at cribs, WOW, what a tough decision that is. So many things that he will need, but we are having fun figuring it out. Names, names, names. So many to choose from.

23 Weeks Today ~

Your baby is more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound. His skin is red and wrinkled. Blood vessels in his lungs are developing to prepare him for breathing and he can swallow. At this point you’ve pretty much adjusted to the fact you’ve got a moving little gymnast inside of you, but now they’re going to kick up the party a notch because they can hear and react to sounds from the outside world. Loud noises heard often in utero — such as your dog barking or the roar of a vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze your baby when he hears them outside the womb. Sounds from your alarm clock, a thunder roll, or that darned car honking at you across the intersection can actually jar their little ears enough to elicit a kick or violent bout of squirming. Of course this also means that their little ears are picking up the sounds of your voice and those near you. So go ahead, sing a lullaby to your little angel—if they start kicking, it’s likely they just want you to stop… or maybe it was a kick of approval? You decide. Your baby's tiny taste buds are still growing and their bones are continuing to ossify (harden), their tiny veins are visible through their translucent yet wrinkly skin. (Think of it this way: they’ve been swimming in the equivalent of a long hot bath for the past 23 weeks, so you can’t blame them for being a little prune-like.)

Things have been pretty quiet this week. Jared was in Texas for 4 days for work, so we're taking it kind of easy. Jared did pick up the baby's changing table last week and we went looking for rockers, but didn't have any luck. Grandpa Johnson did end up finding a very nice one for us, so thanks again Grandpa J. We will get a lot of use out of it, the little guy will have lots of story times there. Thank you Grandma Brown for the Hawkeye outfits. He will really like them. Ok, so he won't really know, but we will enjoy putting him in them when the Hawks go to their bowl game this year (and any other day).

Dr. Appointment Update ~

We had our monthly appointment today. Everything is looking good. His heartbeat was at 156bpm. I think it was up a little because he was very active during the appointment. I have been feeling him a lot more the past couple of days. It's a pretty good feeling.

22 Weeks Today ~

The grow must go on! He weighs nearly a pound and measures nearly a foot in length. Your baby's future in the circus as a world-famous tight-rope-walker is secure: their inner ear is now developed to the point that they have their own sense of balance. Lucky for your little explorer, balance also promotes physical dexterity, which has him actively feeling out his surroundings where skin, body parts, and the resident umbilical cord are the big sensory experiences. Your foot-long baby, is looking a bit like an over sized raisin right now as more and more wrinkles are showing up each week. Not to worry, all that excessive wrinkling is just their skin’s way of planning ahead for the time when they’ll start piling on that irresistible baby chub.
Her lips are becoming more distinct, and the first signs of teeth are appearing as buds beneath her gum line. His eyes are developed, though the iris (the colored part of the eye) still lacks pigment. Eyelids and eyebrows are in place, and his pancreas, essential for hormone production, is developing steadily.

Things are going great. My belly just seems to be getting bigger every week. I think he still likes laying sideways with his head on the right side. If I try to lay on my right side, I have to take it slow. It's heavier on that side. It's kind of weird. I have really enjoyed being pregnant. I can't really complain. We have bought a couple of things for his room. We got him a ceiling fan that Grandpa Al is going to help Jared put in and a bassinet from one of my friends for him to sleep in while he is in our room. It will only hold him until he is 3 months or 15 pounds. That will be good for me because whether I like it or not he will have to go in his own room then.