Dear Baby

Well, here we are, 1/2 way through.  Only 20 weeks to go!

At this point you are about 320 grams and 16cm long.  From what I understand, you are about 1/2 the length that you will be once you are born.

Today was our ‘big scan’.  We saw your profile and your arms and legs.  There is one great scan pic, which I will put up tomorrow, that shows you with your hand on your forehead, like you are totally verklempt!  All of your bits and pieces are exactly where they need to be.  Your heart has four chambers, your brain has all its lobes.  Now if you would only kick hard enough for your daddy to feel!

And right on schedule, mummy’s insulin needs increased.  They say insulin resistance starts at 20 weeks as your placenta gets stronger and what do you know?  Last Friday I woke up to crazy numbers that never went away so I called and spoke to the Diabetic Education centre (who have been treating mummy very well all through her pregnancy with you) and they suggested an insulin increase.  And that it was because you were having a growth spurt!

This week is mummy’s 40th birthday.  Try to go easy on your old mum, huh?  She’ll be a bit older than a lot of your friend’s mums.  Hopefully that won’t bother you too much!

Daddy thinks I should write these down on paper, as well as store them here, because he is worried the technology will have changed too much for you to read this when you’re old enough to understand it.  I figure if we get to that point, I’ll just print these pages out!

So you keep on growing in there, okay?  And remember…

I love you.

Mummy

Dear Baby

I’ve been wanting to write to you for awhile, so we can look back together when you’re older and you’ll know how it felt to have you inside of me.  But I was afraid to until I got that glorious number last week, that 1:1002 of low risk for genetic disorders.

If the odds hadn’t been that good your daddy and I would have had to make the hardest decision we’ve ever had to make.  Do we risk an amnio and possible miscarriage or do we just see what happens? I, and your daddy, are so relieved that we never have to make that decision.

The 19 weeks gestational is an estimate as well.  You see, I use Tuesday as your weekly age day as when I had my second scan, the one where you had a good strong heartbeat for sure, you were exactly 7 weeks.  Since then the dates have moved around a bit, but only by a few days here and there.  So I decided, rather than recalculating all the time, to call Tuesdays as your day.  And so every Tuesday your daddy and I look in the pregnancy week by week book to see how big you are and what bits of you have developed.

This week, week 19, you are starting to develop muscle, which I knew because you are poking me a lot!  And you’re getting some fat deposits, to make you look more like a baby and less like a skeleton!!  You weigh about 260 grams and are about 15 cm long.

As I mentioned, in the past week you’ve been poking the heck out of me! I love it!  Well, I must admit I didn’t so much love it at 3am the other day, but I think that was because my bladder was full and you didn’t have any room!!!

I, of course, think about you every day.  And talk to you, even though you can’t quite hear me yet.  I think about how many people, besides me and your daddy, already love you.  6 grandparents, 16 aunts and uncles, and 13 cousins!  Including one cousin who will be born either right after or right before you!  How lucky are you?

I am counting the weeks and days until June, my little one.  And then I get to meet you.

Love

Mummy