Dear Beta,
Several people have asked me if you have had hiccups.
Today! Today you had hiccups! It felt like your regular
bumps, but a bit stronger and definitely rhythmic. It lasted a long time,
and reoccurred several times during the day.
As a matter of fact, today I wondered if you ever sleep.
You were active all day, with the most strength, and the greatest amount
of activity I have felt yet. I can’t think of a time when you really
stopped or slowed much during the day.
The last several nights, every time I wake, you are
moving firmly. I am beginning to wonder if I wake during the night to use
the bathroom, or if it is you waking up and bumping, that in turn wakes me!
Regardless, it is easy to fall back asleep, my hand happily resting on my
belly where you are moving.
It is amazing to me how big you have grown, and how far
you can stretch. Your favorite parts of my belly are low down, and on my
right side. I feel you on my left side occasionally, but my right side is
definitely your preference. Frequently I can feel you bumping both on my
upper right side and down low by my left thigh, at the exact same moment.
If I wasn’t so excited to meet you and watch you grow
outside me, I think I could stay twenty three weeks pregnant, feeling you bump
around inside, forever. After you are born, I will eventually have to go
back to work. It will be hard for me to leave you, and be without you.
For now, I relish your every movement, knowing you and I are inseparable.
For this season, I never have to leave you behind.
Your daddy and I agree we wish my belly had an instant
“translucent” mode, where we could see exactly what you are doing, which part
of your body, and in what motion, is creating the movement we can feel on the
outside.
Every night you play with your Daddy. He likes to
put his face on my belly and let you kick his nose, chin, and cheek. He
talks silliness to you, feels your little firm body inside me, and sings the
“charge” tune to you. Then he prays for all of us before we fall asleep.
Once this week, we were talking about laughter and
happiness, and he prayed that you would be a child full of laughter.
Crazy as it seems, I think we actually have names picked
out for you, both a girl name and boy name. We selected them on our
anniversary camping trip, and have been mulling over them ever since to see if
they still “feel right.” Their meanings are deep, and we feel like they
“fit” you. I can’t wait for the moment when we see you the first time,
and call you by your true name. I will give you a hint. Your
initials will either be KAC or JRC. We retain the right to change our minds
until we sign your birth certificate, but I think we feel pretty well settled.
You are still just a bit over eleven inches long, and a
bit over one pound in weight. The last few weeks of photos, I have
struggled to select a fruit or vegetable that fits you. You are still
pretty thin if stretched out straight, but you can’t stretch out completely
inside me, so I picture you a bit more curled up and rounded. From crown
to rump, you are about the size of this ear of corn, so your arms and legs
would be extra appendages to the corn. When I feel movements inside me,
the furthest apart I can feel them is about the length of this corn, so at least
that comparison feels about right. Curled up, you are about the size of this
squash.
This week, your eyebrows are visible! The pigment
in your skin begins to form as well, since your skin has been translucent until
now. Your Daddy’s skin is Northern-boy white, and mine is
Central-American olive. We will see which of us you turn out more like,
or if you are somewhere in between!
On the skin of your fingers and toes, your individual
fingerprints and footprints are forming. No one else in history of the
world will have fingerprints or footprints exactly like yours. Amazingly,
God makes these prints unique to every single human who has ever lived.
The bones in your middle ear are hardening, which
sharpens your hearing. Low-frequency sounds penetrate your house better
than high frequency sounds, so your Daddy’s voice will actually come through to
you clearer than female voices. I like to think you can hear my voice
clearly since it is both an internal and external sound. This frequency
penetration issue definitely explains why you respond so well to your Daddy’s
voice each night, and why you bounce around so much when our church band
practices and plays!
And, just as I have been able to tell, you are strong
enough, and have enough sense of balance and motion control to turn from side
to side and flip head over heels! When I lie down, curl into a ball, wrap
my arms around my belly, and feel you move, it is almost like I am holding you.
In the book of Isaiah, there is a beautiful verse about
the Lord holding us in His arms. When I looked it up, I realized it is
also the passage that prophesies about John the Baptist.
"Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins
are pardoned.
“Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting,
‘Clear the way through the wilderness for the
Lord!
Make a straight highway through the
wasteland for our God!
Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills.
Straighten the curves, and smooth out the
rough places.
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will
see it together. The Lord has spoken!’ ”tist!
“ ‘Comfort, comfort my people,’ says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.
O Zion, messenger of good news, shout from the mountaintops!
Shout it louder, O Jerusalem.
Shout, and do not be afraid.
Tell the towns of Judah, “Your God is coming!”
Yes, the Sovereign Lord is coming in power.
He will rule with a
powerful arm.
See, He brings His
reward with Him as he comes.
He will feed His flock like a shepherd.
He will carry the
lambs in His arms,
holding them close to His heart.
He will gently lead
the mother sheep with their young.”
(Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11)
