This week your baby starts bulking up and packing on the grossly named "brown fat" he'll need to keep warm when he gets evicted from his comfortable uterine home. Other highlights this week:
Vernix, a milky white coating that protects your baby's skin, appears all over your baby's body to keep his skin from getting pickled in the amniotic fluid. Think of it as if your baby has been dipped in yogurt, like those delicious but fake-healthy yogurt-covered raisins and pretzels. Ooh, we feel another craving comin' on. ... Under the vernix, a fuzzy layer of hair called lanugo now covers baby's body. Don't worry, your Mini won't look like Cousin It when he's born. Most of the fuzz will fall off before baby makes his grand entrance.
Good news: Your baby's kidneys are fully functioning and producing urine this week. Bad news: That means there will be lots of diapers in your future. But so far you're safe—at the moment the pee just passes into the amniotic fluid.
He or she now weighs about 8½ ounces and measures 6 inches, as long as a turkey sub from Subway on warm, delicious Italian Herbs and Cheese bread (or Honey Oat bread, or Oregano bread or ...)
*3D Pregnancy
Well, since I skipped Week 18, I'll give the update here because some big things happened in the last week...
Your baby's ears are now facing forward and are completely formed so she can actually hear you talking now. You don't need to abandon your potty mouth just yet, but you might want to start thinking about it! Other highlights this week:
This week is also the beginning of ossification. And while that sounds like some long and involved paperwork you'll have to fill out, it's really a fancy medical term for the hardening of your baby's miniature bones. And that's a good thing.
Your baby's nerves are making more and more complex connections. Her sense of smell, taste, sight and hearing are all developing. A substance called myelin, which makes nerve connections travel faster, is now coating your baby's nerves.
Your baby now weighs between 5 and 7 ounces and is about 5½ inches long—about the size of a pickle from the corner deli. (You're familiar with pickles, right? Your regular accompaniment to a big bowl of ice cream?)
*3D Pregnancy
Did you read it? Xander can hear us! Other books I've read have said at week 19, but either way (since I skipped a week), he can hear. I've caught myself talking to him a lot lately as I wander around the house. I'm going to buy a lullaby cd this week. I've read that if you play the cd while baby is in the womb that there is a visible calming effect on the baby once they're out of the womb when you play the same cd. I'm going to do my own little experiment. :)
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