Brains & Braun

Over the past two weeks, our little girl has been going through major brain development. She’s been adding surface area to her brain through wrinkles, groves, and indentations and she can now react to light! Evidently sight is the last sense to develop because my email this week said all five senses are now in working order (although she won’t smell for the first time until after birth when she can breathe air and not amniotic fluid)!

Our daughter is the size of a pineapple at 31 weeks (an increase from cucumber last week). All measurements are now by month, so she’s still in the 7^th month range of 15.2-16.4 inches for length and 2.5-3.8 pounds for weight. She’s also strong enough to grasp a finger now and I can’t wait to test that reflex! I’ve definitely found myself lying awake at night lately with a smile on my face trying to imagine what she’ll be like and trying to remember all of the wonderful things (and tough things) about having a newborn. I’m sure it will be different with a toddler in the house this time around, but I’m so excited to hold my little girl, sing to her, teach her to smile, have skin-to-skin contact, snuggle…the list goes on and on. I’m sure we’ll be exhausted from lack of sleep and being parents to a newborn AND toddler, but I welcome that challenge for all the joy that accompanies it!

Last Friday, I had my 30 week ‘routine’ doctor appointment (after the previous 28 week ‘unique’ appointment with ultrasound and glucose test). Most everything was just right…my weight hadn’t increased (not even one pound), the baby’s heart rate was 135 bpm, and my blood pressure was 110/70. But when the doctor measured my tummy, it measured 27 cm at the 30 week appointment, so I was 3 cm smaller than my number of weeks pregnant. That is technically in the ‘normal’ range, but the doctor started to ask me if I was having any abnormal symptoms of pregnancy (she rattled of a long list, of which none were occurring). The doctor still seemed concerned, so she recommended another growth ultrasound at our next doctor appointment in 2 weeks. So next week we’ll get to see our daughter again and re-check all of her measurements and, I assume, my amniotic fluid level. It will be nice to have another ultrasound, but it was also a little disheartening for the appointment to take a less than ‘normal’ turn. As always, we’ll be praying for our daughter’s health and development, and my health and amniotic fluid levels. We’ll see what God has in store for us at our appointment next week!

On a different note, we spent the weekend up at Jim and Sandi’s mountain house and really enjoyed our time. Our kids got to go on their first Jeep ride (which was VERY bumpy for Rock and me…along with our daughter in my belly!) and Sandi and I painted some of the nursery decorations, which was fun too!