Friday, August 10, 2007

Pregnancy Humor



According to all I've heard and read, pregnant women are known for their rollercoaster of emotions. I've been pretty normal throughout my pregnancy, if I do say so myself. I'm sure Jonathan is quite relieved!

But now let's visit an incident that happened the other night, shall we?

They say that at this stage in a baby's developoment, he can hear sounds outside the womb. So, every night, Jonathan reads to the baby from a children's book of Bible stories that we have. On this particular night, I was laying in bed, highly amused at the strange shape my stomach becomes when I sit up just a bit. And I got a bad case of the giggles, just like a kid does. The giggles interrupted Jonathan's story time and so he eventually closed the book and put it away.

Enter pregnancy hormones.

I was immediately moved to tears because he stopped reading. I was truly upset by it. So I got up, took the book and proclaimed I was going to read the Bible story for the night. Poor Jonathan was dumbfounded by my tears. And frankly, so I was I.

So what did I do? While crying, I started laughing ... and then I continued crying. Oh, boy. It was just weird. I was highly amused and seriously upset at the same time.

And so when I saw this cartoon today, I just had to share it.

Jennifer


Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Happy Birthday!



Happy Birthday, Liz!

My sister, Liz, turns 31 today (and there are few things that make an older sister feel OLD than knowing her LITTLE sister is 31!)

Jennifer

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

The Baby at 27 Weeks

Week 27: I Sense Something Is Going On

Most babies this age, yours included, still like to snuggle in a slightly curled position inside the uterus (thus the term "fetal position"). Even so, beginning at this stage, your baby's length will be measured from top of head to toe — which makes your baby nearly a full 15 inches now. And at just over two pounds, he or she has doubled in weight from four weeks ago.

Your baby's auditory development (hearing) is progressing as the network of nerves to the ears matures. And even though the sounds your baby hears are muffled (thanks to the creamy coating of vernix covering those ears), he or she may recognize both yours and your partner's voices. So this might be a good time to read and even sing to your baby (or rather, your belly) — and a good chance to start boning up on those nursery rhymes and lullabies you'll need to be repeating (and repeating) pretty soon. And while you're at it, here's another way to have some family fun: If your partner presses his ear to your belly, he might be able to hear the baby's heartbeat.

Your baby's taste buds are very developed now too (with more taste buds than he or she will ever have outside the womb, actually). Need a taste test? If you eat some spicy food (you hot mama, you), your baby will be able to taste the difference in the amniotic fluid (but keep in mind that you'll have different mealtimes, with your baby's coming about two hours after yours). Some babies will even respond to that spicy kick by hiccupping. And although hiccups (which feel like belly spasms to you) may seem like they're disturbing to your baby, he or she isn't stressed at all. It's just one more sensation that babies need to get used to.