33 WEEKS PREGNANT!!!

Dear Gracyn, You are a mover and a shaker...Mommy's belly is all over the place! Pretty neat to watch and feel! During this week, you will turn 33w3d in utero and Mommy turns 23 yrs. old on Aug. 9th! A double blessing for this grandma! This week, I am guessing you are 5 to 5 1/2 lbs. and possibly around 17 inches long. You are rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and your skeleton is hardening. The bones in your skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for you to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as your brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood. Speaking of the birthing process, Mommy has been having several braxton hicks contractions on a daily basis, but so far she can breath and talk through them. Some become timeable but then fizzle out. If you were born this week the big news is that your lung development is almost completely mature. That means odds are you'd be a healthy bouncing baby with a just a little help from friends (aka, the NICU). Secretly, a tiny part of me wants you born on Mommy's birthday, but the sensible side reminds myself that you need to wait for at least 4 more weeks until you are full term! I love you, little Miss Gracyn! Grandma Dason