Six Week Report Card

We're nearing the end of your sixth week of life here on Earth and, as my K-12 training has taught me, 6 weeks is the perfect period of time in which to grade someone's performance and give them a report card.

GROWTH: A+
First of all, I'm still trying to get over the fact that you've grown from this:

To this:

To this:

To this!

And now, to this!

But, the amazing growing baby continues to amaze! Just yesterday, your Mom put the blue pair of socks that we brought with us to the hospital on your tiny, teeny feet. And, guess what? At the hospital, those things slipped off your feet as easily as if they were made of ice...and yesterday they fit snuggly! You're already growing into your socks!

That's pretty crazy, considering that I still remember being psyched about seeing your feet like this: And now look at those feet!

When we took those pictures about four weeks ago your feet were about as long as my index finger. Now they're way longer!

BATH TIME: A+

Let's just say that ever since your umbilical cord fell off, Sesame Street has been correct: Bath time IS so much fun. You like it a lot more now that we can get your belly wet and keep you clean. In fact, your Mom and I are kinda getting to be like old pros at bath time. Well, mostly your mom. I'm getting really good at filming bath time and warming the towel up in the dryer and catching your slippery little self as your Mom hands you to me!

DISCOVERING: A+

Wow, this one's been really coming along this week alone. When babies are born they don't know their heads from their hands or their Beatles from their Stones (well, maybe YOU know the Beatles, with parents like us!) But, recently you've started discovering that you have arms and hands and that, yes, they are yours for you to use how you see fit!

Last week you took your Mommy's glasses off (though I maintain that was a happy accident).

Yesterday while Mommy was kissing your feet, you reached up and touched her hair.

You totally grabbed my hand on day 1, but that was just a reflex. But grabbing things consciously- while not quite there yet- is developing nicely. Check out how you manipulated this Sheep toy your Auntie Deborah got you!

Now, of course, you may just be thrashing to get the thing off of you, but I like to think you were hugging it!

Most impressive, though, is that we've caught you "self-soothing" by sucking on your forearm, your entire hand and even your thumb. This is great for everyone! If you can self soothe, then you can put yourself back to sleep if you wake up. But, also, knowing where your hands and arms are located at all times is a pretty important life skill to master, so you're making major headway this week!

CUDDLING: A+

'Nuff Said.

Sleeping (without someone underneath you): A -

This used to be a big concern...would you ever be able to sleep for more than an hour without your mother or me underneath you? That would have been really awkward when you went to college.

But, recently, you've been able to sleep longer and longer without someone underneath you. In fact, I'm happy to report, that last night you slept in the Cradle your Nanneh made you all by yourself from 10:00pm to 1:am. In fact, you were sleeping so hard that I had to wake you up to feed you! (which I know I'm not supposed to do, but if I let you go too much longer, I would have gotten no sleep at all, and then I wouldn't have had all this energy to write this blog post today!)

You are improving day by day on your sleeping. And trust us, in this family, you'll need your sleep. We're tiring.

UPDATE! Just got this message and pictures from your Mommy: "You'll be happy to know that little monster is taking his nap in his cradle! Now let's hope that the mail man doesn't come by now and make the dogs go crazy and wake him up!!"

Yes indeed, we all hold our breath around mail delivery time as Preston and Toby have declared all Mail Men (and women) their mortal enemies, and feel the need to tell them that loudly...through the door. Everytime the mail-dog bark- aidan awakes situation happens, your Mom tells the dogs that they are one step closer to being punted to the back yard.

I know, I know...I was surprised that your Mom knew what punting was too!

Smiling: A+

Two days ago when I came home from work you smiled at me. This was not gas. I repeat NOT gas. It was a real smile, and you've been doing it more and more ever since!

Pictures will be coming soon, as soon as we can readily predict your smiles!

Not too bad, son! In your first 6 weeks, you are a Straight A student! Keep this up and you'll be Valedictorian of your class (though, Toby and Preston are really going to have to fight it out to get Salutatorian status).

I can't wait to see what the next 6 weeks brings!

Eighth in the Hole

It's hard to believe that our 8th month is almost over. That's right, buddy, you're now well into your 35th week of growing in your Mom's belly and, come Saturday, your Mom and I begin our 9th month.

That means that the end of pregnancy is nigh and that a new beginning is just around the corner. You're going to be born in approximately 32 days! (Although, some people are rooting for you to be born in as little as 13 days so they can win the chocolate bar bet!) But your Mom and I are hopeful that you'll make it to full term, and be born sometime in March!

As we're settling into the last month, you may be settling into place: head down. With your head down toward the cervix, you're in primo position to be born. In fact, we're pretty sure that you spend most of your time upside down now, since your Mom can feel you kick BOTH sides of her ribcage simultaneously!

But, don't worry, your kicking isn't really the sole culprit for your Mom's growing discomfort. She and you are both just getting so big that your Mom's belly is just plain cumbersome. You may have reached your final birthlength, estimated at around 17-20 inches, but you haven't reached your final weight yet. As the weeks go onward you're just going to be packing on the pounds, adding some girth and adding discomfort, (though it's unintentional).

In fact, just a few days after I re-earned my place sleeping in bed and not on the couch after my surgery, your Mom has taken to moving to the couch in the middle of the night. Apparently the firmness of the couch allows her more support to prop up her heavy belly. We tried propping up the belly on her body pillow- but it's "too tall" to get the belly on. We tried propping it up on one of those airline neck pillows- but that's too small. And last night, your Mom went into your nursery and grabbed a wedge pillow and tried to wedge her belly up with that, but it just didn't work, apparently.

I know this because when I woke up this morning, your Mom was sleeping on the couch.

A few more nights of this and, perhaps, your Mom will become one of those people rooting for Febraury 15th after all!

The Weight is Over

After being unable to get a straight answer from the doctor (or probably, more likely, from your Mom interpreting the doctor), we finally know how much weight your Mom has gained thus far in the pregnancy.

Luckily enough, the last time she did Wii Fit was early June. By the way, Wii Fit is a video game exercise thing that, in the future, you'll probably laugh at us for using, just was we laughed at our parents for their childhood playthings: twigs and stones and mammoth bones. So in early June we were just a couple of weeks pregnant, but we didn't know it yet!



In fact, the Wii Fit sometimes asks me where your Mother is. Once, the Wii Fit and had this conversation:

Wii fit: Hey...have you seen Holly lately?

Aaron: Yes.

Wii fit: How's she looking?
A. Gained Weight
B. Lost Weight
C. About the same

Aaron: A. Gained Weight.

Wii Fit: Uh-oh...You probably shouldn't tell her that she looks like she's gained weight. Say something nice about her smile or her hair.

Okay, maybe that's not exactly how it went, but, still, that is one sassy machine!

But, it did have a point. Your Mother hasn't stepped on the Wii's scale since June ...but that all changed today.

Without further waiting, the magic number of pounds gained so far is (drum roll please)..THIRTEEN!

That's it? I can gain thirteen pounds at a Chinese buffet! No wonder the doctor said that all the weigh gained was, in fact, all baby. Your Mom is still well within the "normal" range for her height...pregnant or not. In fact, I think her BMI is still lower than mine! BMI is total bunk, by the way, but it's still funny! She really, on paper, hasn't gained that much weight.

But, the visual differences are actually beginning to be quite stunning! Want to see what approximately 13 pounds of baby weight gain looks like?

Here she is in week 12 (after already gaining about 2-3 pounds from her baseline):



And here she is in week 21! Look how big you're getting!

Now for fun, try to find two differences between the 2 21 week photos!
Also, you'll notice your nursery is growing too! That changing table was your Cousin Kathryn's! But your Uncle Dana and Aunt Mendi said you could have it now!

Belly Explosion

So, as we near the end of Week 20, your Mother is undeniably pregnant. Outside observers have noted that your Mom's belly seems to have exploded from the end of last week to today. And, while I thought the belly would be a gradual growth, your Mom has me convinced that she's growing with leaps and bounds.

While I was asleep the other night, I half-noticed your Mom getting up, going into the closet, doing something and coming back to bed. The next morning she told me what happened:

She felt like her belly had suddenly grown in the middle of the night and suddenly, the pajamas she had put on before she went to bed were too tight. Far too tight.

So at around 1 AM, she had to get up and change into bigger pajamas!

Whether or not this belly bump is bursting spontaneously, you can most definitely tell that, after 20 weeks of pregnancy, your mother is shaped much differently than she was before (in fact, she's now shaped much more like I was in college after 4 years of buffalo chicken calzones!)

Of course, though, your Mother is gorgeous pregnant (as she is un-pregnant). I was just fat.

But, as pregnant women are likely to do, your Mom has been grumbling lately how "fat" she is, that she can't even remember being smaller and that she's never going to be the same size again. Well, that remains to be seen, but I reinforce the truth that she is gorgeous with child (does the phrase "with child" freak anyone else out?), and that she is as beautiful as ever.

Last night, while trying to help, I kinda made things worse:

Holly: "I'm so fat!"

Me: "You're not fat at all! Look, you are gorgeous! Pregnancy has given you this glow! You seem so happy all the time!"

Holly: "You mean I'm Jolly?"

Me: "Huh?"

Holly: "Jolly Holly? I'm gonna be huge by Christmas. I don't want to have a Holly Jolly Christmas!"

I don't think "Jolly" always means "Too fat to fit in a chimney..."

So, there you have it, the eratic nature of talking to a pregnant woman. Please note that she was (partially) joking around, and that I DO think (and constantly tell her) how gorgeous she is-- no matter if her belly is growing gradually, or exploding over night, as this animation I made might have you believe!

Click on Holly to see her full size! Week 8 vs. Week 20

Big Baby

So, here we are at week 14. You missed this week's you-to-fruit comparison, didn't you? Well, fret not. In week 14, you are approximately the size of a Lemon!

How cool is that? You know, your Mom LOVES lemons! She ate so many of them when she was a kid that she wore down the enamel on her teeth and, consequently, they didn't glow in black lights. But, that's all been fixed now. Yay for modern dentistry!

Some cool things in your development this week:

• You are "making urine"- that sounds just like your dear old Dad. I make urine quite frequently.
  
• You are breathing amniotic fluid. Okay, so that sounds a bit amphibious. But, eventually you'll breathe good old air.
  
• Your liver, kidneys and spleen are developing like crazy! You'll need all of those, fer sure!

And, this one's pretty cool. You are growing thin, downy, feathery hair all over your body for warmth. I know you may be worried that you'll look like me after I got my head shaved or Uncle Jeremy or some kind of Wookie, but don't worry.

This hair growth, called Lanugo, is only gonna stick around while you're in the womb. It's cold in there, apparently! They have some high tech images of what this Lanugo looks like:

See, you look more like Mark Twain than a Wookie. But, you're definitely in a part-mammal, part-amphibian stage in your life. Which means you could, theortically, star in Waterworld 2. (Don't worry, these jokes will be hilarious later in life).

But, the most interesting thing, to me, is that, apparently, you're above average already! The Bump says that at week 14, on average, the baby is 3.4 inches long.

A week ago yesterday, you clocked in at 4.o inches long, from rump to head! That makes you significantly larger than the average-sized baby! Almost 1/3 bigger than the average!

This revelation was greeted with a humorous exhange between your mother and I (very intelligently debating the difference in our respective sizes):

Aaron: "Our baby is way longer than the average length. The Bump says that at week 14, on average, the baby is 3.4 inches long. But our baby measured 4 inches long. LAST WEEK!"

Holly: "Really?"

Aaron: "Yeah, look at me!"

Holly: "Are we gonna have a big baby?"

Aaron: "Yeah, look at me!"

Holly: "Yeah, but look at me!"

Aaron: "So, look at me!"

Holly: "Yeah, but look at me!"

This went on ad nauseum until our batteries wore out. We haven't gotten any stats on percentiles or anything like that, yet. But, if this lemon information is any good, you might be a big baby!

Whether you'll be big or not, I still can't get over how much you've grown from the first time we saw you! You're a little person in there now; at first glance you were just a smudge with a heartbeat!

James (or Jane) and the Giant Peach

Here we are: week 13! I would think it's safe to say that we are officially in the Second Trimester now. But "The Bump" says that doesn't happen til NEXT week. But, either way, you, my friend, are roughly the size of a PEACH!

This is big news because, well, Peaches are pretty big! This means that soon enough, your Mother will be entering the "definitely showing a baby bump" phase that has thus-far eluded her. (She's still convinced she's in the "lay off the sweets, lady" phase [aka a root beer belly])


But, speaking about size, things are supposedly progressing quite nicely for you in your Mom's belly. You are quickly reaching human proportions: your head is now only about 1/3 the size of your body. That looks a lot more normal than you did a couple weeks ago when your head was the same size as your body!

See? Having a head 1/3 the size of your body looks almost normal. Though, I feel that champagne flute will be useless to someone with those proportions.

Something else is happening to you this week, and I gotta say, it's gonna make a world of difference for you down the line. According to sources, this week, your intestines are making a strategic move. They're relocating from the umbilical cord (which you don't get to keep) into your tummy! I think you'll really be pleased with this change; your intestines can serve you a lot better inside your tummy than housed in a weird-looking tube hooked up to your belly button. And trust me, as a Weinstein, you'll be using those intestines!

Speaking of the old intestines, your Mom's nausea has almost gone all away! But she still is not hungry for a lot of food. She is, however, hungry for a little bit of food about 76 times a day. If you're an old wife (like Mimi or Nannah (which is the decided-upon name for Nita!)), then you might use this eating-pattern information to predict your gender.

Of course, we already discussed the speed of the heartbeat indicating that you might be a girl (based on nothing but fiction, of course).

But, the other old wives tale that says that women pregnant with boys can't stop eating and never get full; women pregnant with girls eat more like birds, picking only what they want, eating little amounts frequently and having their mothers regurgitating that food into their mouths (or something like that). Well, your mother is quite peckish, and gets full pretty easily. So that would also indicate "girl!" But, my co-worker had two baby boys and was also peckish with her eating habits during pregnancy.

So there you go. Another gender prediction busted! So, as for now we don't know if you're Jane or James (neither are names we're considering). But, we do know that you are one cute peach!

Your Second Photo Shoot

Today your mom and I went to see Dr. Hagood again and you had your second check-up. Everything about you is perfect, said the doctor. Your heartbeat has increased its speed and sounds like a beating drum. You've also grown a lot too! You're now the size of a raspberry, and about 8.5 weeks old. Check out these pictures! You're really doing some grade-a growing in there!

You kind of look like a Gummy Bear right now- you have little arm and leg buds beginning to develop. See?

Look how little you are! But you're really starting to move a lot too; the doctor saw you turning!

Your Mom is feeling a little better, but she still is pretty nauseous and eating like crazy! She is now eating a bowl of cereal every night before she goes to bed! (But nothing good...usually Rice Krispies or Cheerios with raisins added in).