18 Weeks!

I can't believe how quickly my pregnancy is moving along! It seems like just yesterday that I found out I was pregnant. Things are going well. I've been really tired again this week. I felt like that had kind of gone away a few weeks ago, but now that I'm back to teaching, I've been exhausted in the afternoons. I think going back full-time in September may be pretty rough.

So now that I'm 18 weeks along, many important changes have taken place with the baby very recently. According to my baby book, all the major elements of the lungs have formed except those involved with oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange, so breathing air is not yet possible. Pads have formed on the baby's fingertips and toes. These will develop the characteristic swirls and creases of the finger- and toeprints. The baby's eyes and ears are now in the correct location (I guess they weren't in the right location when they first developed??). The major glands in the endocrine system have developed (pituitary, thyroid, kidneys, liver, pancreas, and ovaries or testes). The baby's bones have hardened, making them visible on an ultrasound now. Myelinization (coating of the nerves, which insulates them and speeds transition of nerve cells) has begun. The baby is now 5 1/2 inches long.

My baby book also includes a "Childbirth Then and Now" section. This week, it describes what childbirth was like in colonial America (1882). So, for my new sister-in-law (the history buff)...this is for you: "It was common to have the laboring woman seated on her husband's lap, he being seated on a chair. He would hold onto the woman around the top of her abdomen or under her arms....This position was certainly not a bad one for all parties with the exception of the husband who sometimes suffered rather severely." Ha! The HUSBANDS suffered? Poor guys...Sorry, I can't say I would've felt sorry for them back then :)

Here's an updated photo of me at 18 weeks pregnant:

~Mindy and Baby S.