2009: Prelude to a New Odyssey

We're standing on the threshold of a new year! Today is the last day of 2009, and what a year it's been!

Think about all the accomplishments you've had in 2009 alone. Granted, January through late May were kind of blank calendar days for you, but from June onward, you've had some amazing feats:

• You made it to the Egg when all the other spermies didn't
• You grew from an Egg to 3/4 of a baby
• You grew a spine and internal organs
• You made a brain
• You grew eyes and then they unfused and now can blink!
• You grew toes and fingers - and they're not even webbed anymore!
• You grew from being compared to a a poppyseed (in week 3) all the way to a squash now!
• You learned to kick and flail and move around inside your Mom's belly
  
• And you did this to your mother (but don't worry, she's exceedingly happy that you did):

But, now that 2009 is behind us, we have to look forward to 2010, which is going to be an even bigger year!

You've got a lot more room to go, no matter how large your Mom's belly seems to get from week to week:

Week 29

Week 30

And, in 2010, you are going to be born! You will learn to smile and see and breathe and roll over and crawl! You'll learn to blink, and find your fingers and toes and grow hair on your head and teeth in your mouth. You'll get to finally meet your Mom and Me, and all the other people who already love you so much, like Mimi and Pops and Nannah and Baba, your Uncles and Aunts (official and honorary), and, of course, your Dogs.

But, we mustn't get ahead of ourselves. For now, on the brink of 2010 and on my 100th journal entry for you, we are in week 30 of our pregnancy- about 7 and a half months in. And on the verge of the most exciting year of our lives yet. Something tells me that 2010 is going to be a great year.

Your family can't wait to meet you!

Happy New Year, Son!

A Thousand Words

Sometimes a picture comes along that just says it all. Sometimes I take that picture.

This picture is that picture. Or at least to me, it is.

I could ramble on again about everything we're doing this week to prepare for you (including buying about 10,001 picture frames for your mom's plan to decorate your nursery and digging up memories of an old poster of Fairy Tale land and reading more rapidly through the pregnancy books).

I could tell you how I'm freaking out a little about birthing and materials necessary and the shower and emergency routes to the hospital and how to tell when your mom is in labor and whether or not we want to register your cord blood and get professional pregnancy pictures.

I could tell you how I'm flabbergasted that you could theoretically be here- and be full term- in as few as 6.5 weeks!

But, instead, I just want to share this picture with you. When I get overwhelmed or nervous with all we have to do before you get here, I will try to transport myself to the frame of mind that this picture induces: you are here, you are coming, your Mom is gorgeous and we are so excited and simultaneously at peace and in awe with your impending arrival.

Also, sorry about the smudges on the mirror. We have to do something about that.

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!

Kicks aren't for Kids?

One of our pregnancy books said something that made a lot of sense: as we ease into your due date, you're going to keep growing and growing, filling up the uterus more and more. Soon, your cozy home is gonna be pretty cramped. Now, you won't be uncomfortable or anything, but these tight quarters are definitely going to start cramping your style, and your movements.

And that means we may soon be feeling fewer kicks. And that actually makes me sad! Feeling you kick makes me smile no matter what kind of mood I'm in. In fact, I even fell asleep with a smile on my face and a and on your Mom's belly a few nights ago; you were kicking before bed time!

The book says that we will still be able to feel some smooth, rolling movements; but the short kicks and jabs may be out the window.

For now, though, we're still in the clear on feeling kicks: Last night you had some HUGE movements too, squirming and rolling and kicking and stretching the whole night long. And we'll hold on to each one as long as they last!

But, I can't say that I'm too sad about you stopping kicking soon, because I know that I can feel you kick IN PERSON really soon!

The Fattening (part II)

Well, your Mother had her turn at the fattener. Now it's yours.

At 29 weeks you are now officially done growing. Height-wise that is. You're probably right now as tall as you're gonna be when you're born, somewhere around 16 inches long. But, as of last week, you were only 2 pounds, 11 oz. (which is well within the norm for your age).

But, you see, in the coming weeks you are going to at least DOUBLE, and more likely TRIPLE your weight. In fact, that's just about all you're going to be doing from now: packing on the pounds and getting stronger and stronger!

You kind of need to do the Subway diet, but in reverse.

So, as your Mom is supposed to be gaining one pound a week from here on out, so too are you going to be gaining weight every week, every day until you finally come out!

And, to comemmorate the growth you and your mother will be experiencing for the rest of the pregnancy, you've been officially upgraded from eggplant size to squash sized! Way to go! You're really moving up that produce aisle!

And you're going to be here sooner than we realize: you could be here (and be full term) in as little as 8 weeks!

Ringing in the Holly-Days

Well, actually your Mom won't be ringing in any holidays, or New Years for that matter.

Pregnancy has a strange effect of making women gain weight in almost every area of their body...including their ring fingers. Every book we've read, and most people we know have suggested to your Mom and her swollen hands that she take off her wedding and engagment ring before her fingers get too big. Because if her fingers get too big, and the rings won't budge, then the doctors will literally SAW them off of her finger when she's admitted to the hospital for your birth.

Her wedding ring wasn't budging for a long while now; growing tighter and tighter. Finally your mother lotioned up her hands, pulled and twisted and was just barely able to get the rings off her finger. It was a close call.

But don't worry, people won't think she's an unwed mother-to-be. Before we went on our Honeymoon, we were paranoid about being held up and our new-found bling being pinched in the process. So, while in Paris, your Mom wore a gaudy decoy ring that she bought at Target for 10 dollars.

The decoy ring - probably due to its gaudiness - has its fans though. Some of your Mom's teenage students, who never commented on her actual ring, complimented your Mom's wedding ring-- as if they'd never seen the real platinum one!

Guess we could have saved a lot of cash by just shopping at Target.

So, even though your Mom may be ringing in the holiday season with a fake ring on, we still will be celebrating because sitting under our tree - actually sitting on the couch near the tree- is the best Christmas/Hannukah present anyone could ask for!

And, because we're super clever, we wrapped that present up in a bow, took a picture of it and sent it off to all our family and friends as an electronic holiday card:

That's right- the best present under our tree is YOU! And everybody in the family wanted to get in on the action of having their pictures taken with you!

Well... maybe "want" isn't the operative word here, but as you can see, they still were IN the pictures with you!

Do Fetuses Dream of Embryonic Sheep?

There you are, a big, bountiful baby bump on week 28 of this journey. I know it seems like I've reported almost every movement, every kick, every turn, every hiccup you make. That's because when you move, it's very exciting for everyone here in the outside world.

But, as you are now almost fully developed some cool things are happening in your off time too. When you stop kicking or rolling we normally say, "I guess he went to sleep," and either wait for you to wake up again or jostle you to wake you up for more playing (rude, huh?)

Scientists know that you- and others in your predicament - can actually sleep in two different ways: inactive AND active sleep. On the outside here, we sleep inactively first, and then actively. On the inside, though, you do the opposite- active first, then inactive.

Active sleeping is synonymous with REM (no, not the band, silly; Rapid Eye Movement). And, REM sleep is when we on the outside of your Mom's belly tend to have dreams.

There's no real way to tell, but because you engage in REM sleep, scientists actually think that you might be able to dream too!

In a rare role reversal, I found that absolutely fascinating and amazing, while your Mom took a pragmatic approach.

"But dreams are just your brain trying to make sense of random synapses firing off in your brain- brining in random images of things you've seen or witnessed," she said.

And that's true, as far as I know.

But I still think you have plenty to dream about:

• Certain flavors of food or smells
• Your Mom's heartbeat
• My singing
• The dogs barking
• Your Mom's internal organs
• Being jostled (like in a car ride)
• Kicking
• Music
• The Paul McCartney & Ben Folds Concerts
• Guitar Music
• The feeling of being on a walk

You probably also have a few things to even have nightmares about:

My singing

• That time we put the flashlight up to the belly
• My singing
• Spicy Food
• My singing

So, even if you're not dreaming or just don't have too much to dream about, I can still dream that you are dreaming, right?

And, I know that your Mom and I both are having tons of dreams about you.

While you continue to get bigger and bigger, we'll continue to dream about you coming out to meet us - and, maybe, you'll be dreaming about meeting the people connected to all the voices you've been hearing and internal organs you've been cozying up to for the past 7 months.

Or maybe, you'll just keep dreaming of embryonic sheep.