I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...and Self-Thermoregulation

You are now 30 weeks old...which means you'll probably be here in 10 week's time! The days keep slipping by, and you keep developing more and more. We had a busy holiday break: Hanukah, Christmas, visitors, movies, housework, exercise, eating, etc. But you had a busier holiday break!

According to some books I was reading, at week 30 of development, the folds of your brain are developed enough to show major advancement of your brain function and capabilities. In fact, your brain is so advanced now, that your brain can now regulate your body temperature on its own. That means that you will start losing that Lanugo- the thin coat of white hair that covered your body to help with temperature regulation- in the days to come. And your temperature regulation couldn't have arrived with better timing, because here on the outside world, we had a White Christmas.

That means it snowed. And stuck. In Dallas. This doesn't happen very often, as you can tell by my over-use of punctuation. But, it was so cold that the dogs had to wear sweaters, just as you were losing your built-in sweater (your lanugo). So, it's probably nice and toasty in the womb, especially with your brain now taking on higher functionality.

And it was pretty cool that your first Christmas (or Zeroth Christmas) was this cold! But it was anything but cold inside. First off, you got to spend some quality time with your Aunt Rebekka, who you'd never met before, and with your Uncle Joe. Neither had the chance to feel you kick before, and they both really liked feeling you move around. And they both were aptly weirded out too. But, they still like you. Aunt Rebekka even sang you a lullabye!

And the Holiday warmth kept coming too. Even though you're not quite out here yet, you were already getting amazing, handmade Hanukah and Christmas presents.

Mimi finished the blanket she was knitting, and Nannah finished the quilt she was making! The grandmas gave them to you as presents! You're going to love them- they're so soft and warm and, well, hand-made!

Even though we knew the grandmas were making these gifts, it was great to finally be able to see them, hold them and imagine wrapping you in them!

But, you did get one gift that was a complete, and amazing, surprise! For almost two months, your Nannah Joon has been workign behind closed doors on a super secret project. By super secret, of course, I mean that everyone knew about it EXCEPT for your Mom and Me. So on Christmas eve when your Nannah Joon revealed a hand-made cradle for you, engraved with Hebrew, Farsi and English prayers provided by Mimi and Pops, Baba and your Great Grandma, we were floored!

Check out how amazing this cradle is!

If you can't tell from all this holiday warmth, you have a pretty kick-butt family, who loves you very much already! But, at least now you don't need to worry about it getting too warm, since you can thermoregulate all by yourself!

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!