As I typed “twenty five” at the top of this post, I
thought, “Wow, that’s a big number.” For each week that passes, we are so
grateful.
Your movements continue to increase in frequency and
strength. You are big and strong enough that often when you move, my
entire belly shakes. It does the same when I laugh.
During a staff meeting at my office, you were kicking
like crazy. I was wearing the same blouse shown in this week’s
pictures. The fabric is thin and flowing. One of my co-workers told
me later, during the meeting, she caught sight of my blouse fluttering around,
and knew it was YOU!
At bedtime, after you hang out with your Daddy, he and I
cuddle in bed, holding each other tight. Since you have made my belly
grow bigger (and cuter), when he and I hug, our bellies touch. The fun
part is when you kick strongly, your Daddy feels it on his belly! You can
get both of us in one swoop.
It continues to be such an amazing feeling to have you
bouncing and dancing inside me. Every once in a while, you move so strong
in such a ticklish part of my belly, I have to press against you hard with both
my hands, sometimes asking you to please move!
We’ve been gathering things you will need and use once
you are born. This week I found great deals on a dresser, bed frame, play
pen, boppy pillow, bumbo seat, and a box of baby boy clothes. A great
article I read recently talked about the five best kids’ toys.
Thankfully, we have them already!
- A
stick
- A
box
-
String
-
Cardboard tubes
-
Dirt
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen children
abandon fancy, expensive, singing, glowing toys to play with one or more of the
awesome toys on this list. It is important to us to keep things as simple
as we can. In America,
and in baby stores, and baby “wish” lists, there seem to be innumerable items
of “Stuff” that expecting parent MUST have. It is exhausting.
I spell Stuff with a capital “S” because it seems like it
has its own personality at times, how much it can take over our lives. So
we are doing our best to focus on gathering for you just the simple
things. My mom came home from the hospital in a shoe box (that was long
before car seat regulations). I initially slept in a dresser drawer
(pulled out of the dresser of course). Our parents and grandparents were
so resourceful! Babies need much less in the way of Stuff than our
culture makes us feel they do.
We already have several boxes of girl clothes, inherited
from your cousins Isabel and Piper. However, we don’t have boy clothes,
and I wanted to have a handful of them ready for you.
When I washed and folded the boy clothes we bought, I
became terribly sentimental. I popped my head into the other room to tell
your Daddy, “You know what will make you want to have a baby? Folding
baby clothes.” Especially baby clothes destined for the child already
growing inside you! It made me want to meet you so badly. To hold
you in my arms, to dress you in those tiny, adorable clothes.
You are big enough where most of the time I can tell
where you are inside my abdomen. Sometimes you make my belly lopsided
when you curl up on one side of it. Once this week you were laying in a
“C” shape, completely still. I figured out where your head was, since it
felt round and hard, where your back and bottom were, and all the way down to
your feet. As I pressed around your body, eventually your little feet
said “hello” to me and kicked, so I knew my guess was right.
It is hard to believe you are really inside my
body. That one of these days, you will emerge into our waiting arms, and
it will have been split seconds before that you were still inside, swimming,
drinking and breathing water, bumping the inside of my skin instead of the outside.
It is such a miracle and it totally blows my mind!
This week we had the best appointment with our midwife,
Robin, yet!
First, she felt around my belly to find you.
“Here’s a knee….”
“Here’s a butt….”
“Here’s a head….”
“The feet are curled up in front of the tummy….”
Then her assistant Jean tried to measure you from head to
rump. But you were more interested in playing games with Robin. You
wiggled, and squirmed, and kicked under her hands. She had to find you
all over again, and sort of pin you down with her hands, laughing the whole
time, and asking you to please stop squirming!
Jean finally got two measurements, one about eight inches
from head to rump, and the other about ten inches from head to rump.
We’ll take the average and say you are nine inches from head to rump, and of
course longer when you add legs and feet. Your house measured twenty six centimeters, which is still about a week ahead of schedule.
Next was your heartbeat, taken with the fetoscope.
Once again, you were ready to play. Robin pressed the fetoscope down into
your house six or seven times, only to have you punch it out of place EVERY
time. It’s quite an art, finding your heartbeat with this device, so it
was hysterical to see her focused concentration interrupted over and over again
by your game.
The first few times she shook her head. Then she
giggled. Then she eventually broke down laughing, and the rest of us
couldn’t help but laugh too. FINALLY you held off long enough for her to
find your heartbeat, and let your Daddy hear too. With his eyebrows
raised, he said, “Wow! That’s a lot louder than last time!” It has
been five weeks since the first time we heard your heartbeat, and you have
grown substantially in that time.
Robin’s notes on your chart this appointment say, “Baby
very active.” Yes, yes, you are.
The last two nights you have woken me up about three in
the morning to play. It’s been the most concentrated movement I’ve felt
from you (not that you are by any means still and quiet the rest of the
time!). I’ve laid awake for ten or fifteen minutes, wrapping my hands
around you, feeling you play inside me, a happy smile on my face.
Your eyes are completely formed, including eyelashes and
eyebrows. You can open and close your eyelids since they are no longer
sealed shut. Your nostrils will also come unplugged this week.
Nerves around your mouth and lips are developing, key to your feeding reflex.
Another working reflex is your “startle” reflex.
For most babies, being startled causes them to throw open their hands and arms
and maybe jump a little. This morning a tickle in my throat made me cough
rather loudly and suddenly, and you responded immediately with a bump. I
quickly apologized for startling you!
You have other connections working from your brain to
your movements and reflexes. Your skin’s nerve endings are only partially
developed, but you can respond to touch (as we saw earlier with Robin!).
Since your dexterity is improving, you can make a fist and grasp objects like
your lips, toes, and umbilical cord. You are able to physically respond
to the sound of my voice and your Daddy’s voice. But on this milestone, I
think you are ahead of the game and have been responding to us for weeks now!
In your lungs, blood vessels are forming to aid in future
breathing. Your spine structure is also taking shape. It will
eventually have 33 rings, 150 joints, and 1000 ligaments!
According to averages, you should be about thirteen
inches long, and weigh about one and a half pounds.
The fact that you are so interactive makes me think about
the impact your life will have on the world, hopefully for the cause of the
Kingdom and Jesus Christ. Even as a child, your life has meaning,
purpose, and impact.
“Through the praise of children and infants you have
established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the
avenger.” (Psalm 8:2)
In the book of Ezra, children were part of the confession
and repentance the nation expressed.
“While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and
throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men,
women and children—gathered around him. They too wept bitterly.” (Ezra
10:1)
In Acts, children prayed for the safe journey of the
apostles.
“We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them
seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. When it was time to leave,
we left and continued on our way. All of them, including wives and children,
accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray.
After saying goodbye to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned
home.” (Acts 21:4-6 )
In Deuteronomy, children are encouraged to turn from sin
and obey the Lord.
“And when you and your children return to the LORD your
God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to
everything I command you today.” (Deuteronomy 30:2)
“Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the
foreigners residing in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the LORD
your God and follow carefully all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy
31:12)
In Isaiah, children are a sign of the presence and power
of the Lord.
“Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We
are signs and symbols in Israel
from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.”
(Isaiah 8:18)
And of course, children exuberantly and freely worship
and celebrate.
“And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing
because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The
sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem
could be heard far away.” (Nehemiah 12:43)
