Instead of the 12 days of Christmas, this is the 9+ months of pregnancy…
I hope the holiday season is treating everybody well out there. Today is the first time we’ve had actual snow hit the ground this season… it’s more than a dusting, but not a true accumulation; perhaps we’ll get two inches of snow, but it’s supposed to turn to rain and it’ll either ice over or disappear. Yee Haw for the lovely New England weather!
Rachel continues to feel well and has begun to feel the flutter of movement in her uterus. She continues to work out and yesterday was “re-invigorated” after reading all of the benefits of exercising during pregnancy. Me, I continue to sleep in and hibernate like a bear until the very last minute of the morning- you know, the last minute that if I pass, I will be REALLY late for work- yeah, that one! I don’t like the winter, I don’t like the cold weather, and all I want to do is stay in my bed where it’s warm. Rachel is quite opposite- she’s a “Get up & Go” type gal… she heads to the gym at some un-Godly hour- I don’t even hear her alarm go off most mornings and she returns before I get out of bed. Yeah, we definitely have a routine!
So, last week we visited Maggie, our beloved midwife- she’s wonderful! Everything is progressing as expected- we heard the heart beat (as we do at every appointment), she asked a billion questions, answered our three billions questions, and then scheduled an ultrasound for December 23rd, 2008 @ 8am. Do you know what that means? It means that we MIGHT know baby Masson’s gender two days before Christmas. YIPPPPEEEEE! In my mind, I’m more excited about that appointment than I am about Christmas! Plus, the parents and grandparents will most likely get little picture frames as gifts that say “It’s a _____!” I will definitely post a blog on that day!
Alright… so, we’ve entered week # 19… what does that mean? Well, our baby is about six inches long and about eight ounces in weight –or- the baby is the size of a large mango (thus the "large" mango picture above). Not many people know, but one of my favorite movies is the Matrix, and in “What to Expect” they say that our “little action figure is able to choreograph Matrix-like moves” meaning that the baby has more control over his/ her movements of it’s limbs because the arms and legs are finally in proportion and the neurons are now connected between the brain and the muscles. Plus, the cartilage throughout the body is finally turning to bone. Another huge development this week is the formation of the vernix caseosa; the actual latin translation is “cheesy varnish” which is greasy and white, and is made up of lanugo (that downy hair), oil from your baby's glands, and dead skin cells. This waxy "cheese" may not sound too appetizing or attractive, but it's there for good reason: Vernix protects your baby's sensitive skin from the surrounding amniotic fluid. Without it, your baby would look very wrinkled at birth (sort of what you'd look like if you soaked in a bath for nine months). Our baby is lathered in anti-wrinkle cream!
Rachel hasn’t added her two cents to our blog yet; she stresses over what she’s going to write. Additionally, I haven’t been able to gather pictures and information about the donor to introduce him yet either. I will work on both of those topics for future blog entries. For now, I leave you with this great quote I found online:
“The moment a child is born,
the mother is also born.
She never existed before.
The woman existed, but the mother, never.
A mother is something absolutely new.”
~Rajneesh
I hope the holiday season is treating everybody well out there. Today is the first time we’ve had actual snow hit the ground this season… it’s more than a dusting, but not a true accumulation; perhaps we’ll get two inches of snow, but it’s supposed to turn to rain and it’ll either ice over or disappear. Yee Haw for the lovely New England weather!
Rachel continues to feel well and has begun to feel the flutter of movement in her uterus. She continues to work out and yesterday was “re-invigorated” after reading all of the benefits of exercising during pregnancy. Me, I continue to sleep in and hibernate like a bear until the very last minute of the morning- you know, the last minute that if I pass, I will be REALLY late for work- yeah, that one! I don’t like the winter, I don’t like the cold weather, and all I want to do is stay in my bed where it’s warm. Rachel is quite opposite- she’s a “Get up & Go” type gal… she heads to the gym at some un-Godly hour- I don’t even hear her alarm go off most mornings and she returns before I get out of bed. Yeah, we definitely have a routine!
So, last week we visited Maggie, our beloved midwife- she’s wonderful! Everything is progressing as expected- we heard the heart beat (as we do at every appointment), she asked a billion questions, answered our three billions questions, and then scheduled an ultrasound for December 23rd, 2008 @ 8am. Do you know what that means? It means that we MIGHT know baby Masson’s gender two days before Christmas. YIPPPPEEEEE! In my mind, I’m more excited about that appointment than I am about Christmas! Plus, the parents and grandparents will most likely get little picture frames as gifts that say “It’s a _____!” I will definitely post a blog on that day!
Alright… so, we’ve entered week # 19… what does that mean? Well, our baby is about six inches long and about eight ounces in weight –or- the baby is the size of a large mango (thus the "large" mango picture above). Not many people know, but one of my favorite movies is the Matrix, and in “What to Expect” they say that our “little action figure is able to choreograph Matrix-like moves” meaning that the baby has more control over his/ her movements of it’s limbs because the arms and legs are finally in proportion and the neurons are now connected between the brain and the muscles. Plus, the cartilage throughout the body is finally turning to bone. Another huge development this week is the formation of the vernix caseosa; the actual latin translation is “cheesy varnish” which is greasy and white, and is made up of lanugo (that downy hair), oil from your baby's glands, and dead skin cells. This waxy "cheese" may not sound too appetizing or attractive, but it's there for good reason: Vernix protects your baby's sensitive skin from the surrounding amniotic fluid. Without it, your baby would look very wrinkled at birth (sort of what you'd look like if you soaked in a bath for nine months). Our baby is lathered in anti-wrinkle cream!
Rachel hasn’t added her two cents to our blog yet; she stresses over what she’s going to write. Additionally, I haven’t been able to gather pictures and information about the donor to introduce him yet either. I will work on both of those topics for future blog entries. For now, I leave you with this great quote I found online:
“The moment a child is born,
the mother is also born.
She never existed before.
The woman existed, but the mother, never.
A mother is something absolutely new.”
~Rajneesh
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