18 Weeks

I'm creeping up on the halfway mark now. Our little one is about 5.75 inches long and weighs about 6.75 ounces. I was thinking about this the other day: by next week the baby will roughly weigh a half pound. By the time I give birth, s/he'll be in the neighborhood of 7 to 8 pounds, probably. It took almost 20 weeks to get to a half pound. Including his/her legs, s/he is almost half of the length s/he'll be at birth, so that makes sense to me. Somehow, during the next 20 weeks, this little gummi bear is going to double, then quadruple, then double again his/her weight. Holy crap. I don't know if my stomach can keep up with that.

Vocal chords are functional now, although there's not much noise to be made when you're completely submersed in water. S/he is sucking and swallowing. The baby can finally hear us. I get the distinctive feeling there is going to be more Pink Floyd played for my belly than I can stand in the next few months. The aveoli are starting to form in those little lungs, and all the chambers of the heart will be visible on our upcoming ultrasound. I still feel like we're having a girl, but I guess we'll see if I'm right or wrong on the 12th.

I'm still not sure if I'm feeling the baby move or if my stomach is just doing strange things. My stomach has always been really growly and rumbly. I'm just not sure where it is now, so I can't tell if the gurgling is from my lunch or from the baby enjoying my lunch. If I don't start feeling anything by the end of this week, I'm gonna start getting nervous. You know, more so than the basket case that I usually am.