Week 36

Technically I'm a few days early, because we're not quite at 36, but here's what's happening in the week ahead. The information from the Baby Center website for this week was more or less "She's getting fatter," so I took the liberty to post the information found on the Pregnancy.org website instead. Here you are:

Your baby is almost ready and most likely, so are you! The only organ still to mature is the lungs. While certainly you are both growing anxious to meet, remember that each day (up to 42 weeks), that your little one stays within your womb will multiply her chances to breathe on her own.

If she hasn't already, this week your baby may drop into the birth canal. While breathing for mom becomes easier, walking may be the exact opposite! If she's not your first baby, this "lightening" may not occur until right before labor.

Fat is dimpling your baby's elbows and knees, and forming creases in the neck and wrists.

Her skin is growing smooth and, shall we say it, "baby" soft.

Her gums are very rigid. It won't be many months before you'll see her teeth.

She has a fully developed pair of kidneys and her liver has begun processing some waste products.

Your child's average size is now 18.66 inches (47.4cm) and 5.78 pounds (2622 g). Between now and birth she will gain about an ounce a da

Not much has changed on this side, it seems. Addie's not been quite as active lately because she's running out of room, which is becoming more and more evident by the look of Ame's belly. Ame has also begun having minor contractions (which really isn't a recent development), which is apparently sort of like a warm-up lap for her uterus. She seems to find these contractions amusing, because her belly becomes just about rock hard, but I have my doubts that she'll be quite as amused by the real labor contractions. They may be something of a rude wake-up call.

We're still maintaining the habit of reading to the baby. Dr. Seuss seems to be a good fit, and since Addie has no clue what we're even talking about, I'd imagine that the rhythm of those books is more interesting than just some silly kid story, like The Frog Principal. I don't think that she finds a story about a principal who gets turned into a frog nearly as entertaining as the rhythm of, say, Yertle the Turtle. Really, I suspect that Addie would be just as content if we were to merely speak jibberish to the tune of Dr. Seuss.

One amusing part of pregnancy that we haven't mentioned yet is fetal hiccups. Though it hasn't happened too terribly often, Addie has had her fair share of hiccups cases. I came home from work a couple of days ago to a not-so-amused Ame, who had been enduring Addie's hiccup fit for the past 20 minutes or so. I honestly found them quite entertaining, as I could put my hand on her belly and feel the steady bump-bump-bump (spaced a second or two apart), but I confess that a large part of my entertainment came from the fact that, if I so wished, I could just remove my hand to make the hiccups go away, something which Ame can't exactly do. I tried to help by telling Addie to hold her breath for 30 seconds. Ame then reminded me that the baby can't breathe, at which point I advised her to hold her amniotic fluid instead. When that didn't work, I attempted to scare the baby by poking from all different angles, something perhaps best described as a belly-quake, but this didn't work either. Still no luck, and I was out of ideas (save for one that my mom used on me once: lighting a match, putting it out in a glass of water, and then drinking the glass of water [minus the match, of course], which actually worked), so I pretty much just had to resign myself to "Tough luck, kid" and "I'm glad I'm not you."

I suppose that's all we really have for right now. Until next time...