Touchy Twenty-four

Hi Aunties and Uncles! This has been an interesting week both in my outside world and in utero! I’m growing quite fast, packing on about 6 ounces a week from now on. I’m about fourteen inches long now! Aren’t you proud of me?

The only thing is now things are starting to get slightly more cramped, even though I hear I’m lucky to have such spacious accommodations (Mamma’s larger than life hips). I can no longer do my somersaults, but I am doing a lot of fidgeting, thumb sucking, and stretching. I can even touch my feet with my hands and clench my fists if I want to!

Over the weekend, I just couldn’t get comfy and so I was stretching all over the place. I guess that made Mamma all anxious since she was trying to go to bed so Daddy sang me my very first lullaby! Well, he started with ‘Rock a Bye Baby’ and he caught Mamma’s eye on the line about the baby falling from a treetop and tried to change the lyrics. He settled on ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ after that. What he doesn’t know is that Mamma tries to sing ‘Hush Little Baby’ in the shower quite often.

Oh, and you will love this story, if you are a Hallmark/Kodak moment sort that is—yesterday my parents for the very first time saw me moving! Yes, you read right, they saw my movements on top of Mamma’s belly. They were thrilled to bits! Ok, at one point Mamma thought it was freaky because I made a motion that to her looked like I made a square shape around her belly button. I was just trying to get comfy! But they were so delighted. Tiny things make them happy. They were even hoping I’d move some more, but I’m only little—I have only so much energy.

Time seems to be flying. I think it’s only about sixteen more weeks for you to meet me, unless I decide to come out earlier. Most of my organs are completely formed—all except my lungs. I have surfactant now. That is surface activated fat that helps my air sacs during inflation. I am practicing my breathing techniques in here, although all I’m sucking in is amniotic fluid.

I’m an adorable little baby, but my skin is wrinkly, pinkish and transparent. Over the next few weeks fat will deposit under my skin and ‘fill me out’. My face looks more or less like it will when I am born. And gasp, I am developing sweat glands!

So as you can see, it’s been a busy week for me. I have to go now since Mamma had her second tetanus vaccine yesterday. Her arm is sore and I think she is tired of typing for me. I’ll catch up with you next week. Until then, please leave some comments for me—last week was just too quiet! By the way, Aunty Shal and Uncle Velan, thanks for visiting me! You two rock! I can’t wait to meet you again—neither can Mamma. Lots of love, Baby BB 6