22 weeks: Now Hear This

Little one,

You have now completed your 22nd week of growing into a fully formed baby Weinstein!

And your Mom continues to grow more and more beautiful.

 So, here we are: you are the size of a papaya. Pretty crazy to think that just 22 weeks ago you were smaller than a poppy seed.

Even crazier to think that about 2 and half years ago, your Mom was 22 weeks pregnant with your brother.

Week 22 with Aidan, October 2009

I'm not rushing things at all, but wait til you see how awesome things are here on the outside world. Your brother was pissed at us for just a few moments for taking him out of your Mom's belly, and you will be too...but so much can change in 2 years. Life happens, and it's beautiful. You're going to love it. But, you've still got 4.5 months or so to go, so, for now, keep on rocking life in the belly and keep on hitting those developmental milestones.

And now that you're 22 weeks old, your beautiful face is fully formed and you're able to hear noises from outside the womb. The blurb says you'll find your Mother's voice most soothing, but you also have been getting quite an earful from me and your brother lately. As you saw, he's talking up a storm, and I'm rarely quiet. So, you should be sonically adjusted to all three of us pretty soon.

I held my phone up to your Mom's belly the other day and played you a song, the Paul Simon one about how there'd "never be a father loved his daughter more than I love you." I sang along with the chorus.

Tonight I'll play you another song:

And Aidan will probably shower you with kisses and say "baby!" and your name too! And "Beatles" (he just learned to say that the other day...I'm very proud). Or maybe you'll be treated to a lovely two-year-old fit (they DO happen). Or maybe you'll hear all the hammers and nails banging around outside as we expand our home to make extra room for our growing family.

No matter what you hear, little one, don't be alarmed. You're doing wonderfully. You're sleeping about 12-14 hours a day; you're growing all the time; and you can hear us whispering about how crazy excited we are to meet you.

Beat it

It finally happened last night!

After months of trying, and waiting patiently, and continuous effort, it finally happened.

No, your Mom's belly button didn't turn into an outie. It's still an inny. Although, it is a weird one...sometimes it protrudes more than others. But, overall, it's an inny.

No, you weren't born. It's too early for that!

Yes, "LOST" came back on, but that's not what I'm talking about.

What I'm all excited about went down like this:

After LOST was over, I tucked your Mom into her new bed (the couch) and sung you a lullabye. Then I put my ear to your Mom's belly to try to hear your heartbeat again.

After several ear placements (and several iterations of you pushing against my face), I finally heard a heart beat.

Convinced it was not your beat, but your Mom's, I started tap the rhythm out on your Mom's arm.

Not knowing what I was doing at all, she said "What are you doing?"

"Is that your heartbeat?" I asked.

She put her fingers to her neck to check her pulse.

"Nope!" she replied.

And with that "nope," I knew that the loud, strong heartbeat I was hearing was actually yours!

I've been putting my ear to your Mom's belly for at least 10 weeks- because the books all said I should have been able to hear your heartbeat. And for 10 weeks, I never heard it.

And finally, last night, I heard your heart pumping blood through your body. I've heard your heart many times on the Doppler, but to hear it with my naked ears- now that was something special. Even more special than the premiere of "LOST," if you can imagine that!

So, be warned, I'm putting my ear to the belly again tonight, for a chance of hearing your ticker tick once more.

Heart and Soul

Boo! Your Mother and I misunderstood the Doctor last time. There was no photo shoot today- no sonogram, no pictures for the fridge (or blog (or the fridge's blog)). I guess now's as good of a time as any to find out that your Mother and I are not perfect. But, to be honest, it was Holly's fault; I am perfect. The end.

Moving right along, though, today's Doctor's appointment wasn't a complete bust. We got to hear your heart beat loud and clear again. Dr. Hagood jelled up this device that was about the size of an old school Walkman (I'll show you one of those in a museum one day) and put it to your Mom's belly...and out from the speaker came your heart beat:

Woosh woosh woosh woosh.

An antique.

It was really great to hear the old ticker again! It sounded strong. Dr. Hagood said "that's a good sound." Your mother replied, "I like that sound." It was a really cool moment.

Hearing your heart lifted my heart this morning. Yeah, that's the signature Weinstein sappiness, which you should probably get used to.

The device used to hear your heart: a "Doppler".

The device instantaneously counted how many beats per minute your heart was pumping out and the result is (drum roll please) 160 beats per minute.

This is pretty fast for a baby, but definitely within the normal range. But, there's an old wive's tale that says fast heart beat means the baby is a girl; slower heart beat means the baby is a boy. But, this is not scientifically proven. Not even the National Enquirer thinks that's true. So let's just let the theorists and predicters think what they will of these 160 bpm.

Officially, let's still say there's a good chance you will either be a boy or a girl!

Since you probably don't have a built-in metronome (unless the future turned out to be pretty lame), here's what 160 bpm sounds like.

Listen for the ticker...not the piano...



Actually, your heart was beating a bit faster than that! And it sounded really good.

Now if only we could figure out how to get a piano in there...

Music to your Ears

Yesterday I told you that your Mom's sense of hearing is heightened.

Well, last night, while reading "What to Expect when you're Expecting," I learned something else pretty interesting about ears:

In this, the 11th week of your development, your ears are supposedly fully formed and look just like regular human ears. The book said something about your ears not necessarily being on the right place of your head quite yet, but at least you have ears!

The timing is perfect because tonight, we're going to your first real concert. Sadly, it's your mother's and my first real concert too. Sure, we've been to symphonies, outdoor concerts, washed-up rock star concerts at food festivals and smaller who-are-they? concerts. But tonight is the real deal, and you get to be there in utero!

So, for your first entree into live music, we present: Paul McCartney!

Now, Paul McCartney was 1/4 of a really famous rock group called the Beatles, who were broken up long before your mother or I were born. In fact, John Lennon (another Beatle) was murdered the year we were born. But, the Beatles' music transcends time and eras, and your mother and I are both HUGE Beatles fans.

The Beatles! Paul isn't wearing any shoes...just like you!

We're such huge Beatles fans that we have several names we're considering for you that actually come from Beatles music! So it's pretty fitting that this will be your first concert!

Don't worry-- I did some checking online and you will be perfectly safe inside your Mom's tummy. There's enough cushioning in there that the loud noises and vibrations won't even budge you! But, hopefully you'll be able to hear some beautiful music! And maybe he'll play one of the songs that inspired your potential name!

Afterall, you just got those new ears in (even if they're not in the right location yet). You might as well put them to good use!

Now's as good of a time as any to start playing you some music. There are lots of songs that come on our iTunes that make me think of you and, surprise surprise, a lot of these songs are by the Beatles or their members (post break-up).

Here's one that makes me think of how much fun we're going to have together once you come out!




Here's another one that always makes me think of your beautiful mother, even if she can't stand to be near me for too long because of my scent(yeah, we're still dealing with that).




Hopefully Paul McCartney will play both of these songs tonight-- if he does, it was my plan all along to have him serenade the both of you!

Holy Holly Hearing!

Pregnancy continues to give your Mom super powers: super taste, super smell, super-sensitive vision.

But, now there are another couple of super strengths to add to the list.

SUPER JAWS and HYPER HEARING

Even though she pretends not to hear me on regular basis, your Mom's hearing seems to have been suped up by pregnancy too. And, not that she had a glass jaw before, but man, she might be able to pull a plane with her teeth now!

Last night at around 11:30 pm, your Mom was hungry (surprise, surprise). So, she got herself a bowl of Frosted Flakes. She started chomping down - CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH.

I looked around for a microphone to see why that noise was so loud, but there was no artificial amplification!

I assumed it was her high quality wooden teeth that made such a loud noise; and I stand by that hypothesis. Pregnancy may have given your mother enhanced jaw strength. No Frosted Flakes survived the incident to confirm or deny that claim.

According to your mom, though, Frosted Flakes is just too loud of a cereal. The decibels put out by chomping on one Frosted Flake is simply too loud for those with super human hearing. In fact, the Frosted Flakes were hurting her ears. Something like a "Cheerios" puts out a pleasant and more subdued sound, she explained, but those Flakes create a cacophony of chomping. But Holly's super hunger was able to win that battle, and she ate the whole bowl, while serenading me, Preston and Toby with a symphony of crunch-Crunch-CRUNCH!

So, add two more radioactive superhuman abilities to the list: a bite that would make Washington and his wooden chompers jealous and hyper-sensitive hearing that most would need spy equipment to duplicate.

Now if only I could get her to stop pretending to not hear me when I'm whining! I really have important things to say when I'm whining!

P.S. Remember when I said that the nausea was waning? I totally lied. She's still nauseous a lot. It's definitely less than it was before, but last night she had to hit the Candy hard (before the cereal) to help calm the nausea. I definitely claimed "Mission: Accomplished" far too early on that one. Maybe you shouldn't listen to me either!