Nineteen Weeks

Holy cow. I am less than a week away from being halfway through this pregnancy. How is that possible? In one way I feel like I am waiting forever to find out the sex of this baby (which we should hopefully find out in the next couple of weeks), but in other ways this all seems to be flying by.

I crossed the nineteen-week mark this past Saturday, and BabyCenter says the baby's sensory development is exploding. Its brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that he/she may even be able to hear my voice now. The baby weighs about eight-and-a-half ounces and measures six inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato. Its arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of its body now, its kidneys continue to make urine, and the hair on its scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on the baby's skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid.

A week from this Wednesday is my next appointment with the midwives, which seems like it has been a long time coming. Six weeks in between appointments is quite the wait. But I have a feeling that might be the longest stretch in between visits from here on out. As I have mentioned before, it will be at that appointment that the ultrasound will be scheduled, and hopefully I will either be able to get into See Baby to do that later next week or the following week. I cannot wait! And I think Jarrett is pretty excited too. We are fairly convinced still that this one is also a girl, so if they tell us it is a boy, we will be shocked. But either way, the news will be a wonderful surprise!

We considered taking Elsa to the ultrasound, but fairly quickly determined that probably would not be the wisest thing to do. She is easily overwhelmed, and we fear she might be frightened by the entire process. And it is not like the baby in the ultrasound looks like the cute, cuddly baby we will bring home from the hospital -- its alien-like resemblance might be enough to totally turn her away from the idea of having a new baby in the house. So, instead, Jarrett and I will enjoy the appointment together as we did the first time around, and will likely show her the least-offending picture that is captured at the appointment. At this point Elsa also thinks she is getting a baby sister, and by nothing either Jarrett nor I have told her. Originally she kept saying it was going to be a boy. But now she claims that the exersaucer I recently brought home after purchasing it used from another family is for her "little sister." When we ask her what will happen if it turns out to be a baby brother, she says, "No. For baby sister." So I guess we shall see if we are all correct in our guessing soon enough!