Week 19

The Babe:
This week the babe is still bulking up and packing on the "brown fat" needed upon eviction! Vernix, a milky white coating that protects the babe's skin, appears all over the babe's body to keep the skin from getting pickled in the amniotic fluid. Under the vernix, a fuzzy layer of hair called lanugo now covers the body. Most of the fuzz will fall off before the babe makes their grand entrance.
Also this week the babe's kidneys are fully functioning and producing urine this week. The babe weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, as long as a turkey sub from Subway...that I can't have!

Me:
Just yesterday I had a student ask me, "Aren't there like so many things that you miss doing just because you are pregnant?" I said, "What, like reaching the back of the bottom self without losing my breath?...NOPE." She said, "No I mean like working out..." "Perhaps, if I ever worked out before I was pregnant..."
My growing belly is leading to a growing number of questions from students, same effect as last year.

Ben:
The Easter musical was GREAT last week and so we got to spend Sunday afternoon and evening with him. Things at school are really getting busy as the semester is drawing to a close.

Mary Alice:
Well today happens to be a big day in the life of Mary Alice. This day (3/31/09) last year Ben and I headed to what should have been a normal doctors appointment. Although, that whole day I had a headache and had checked my blood pressure at school and knew that it was high and that is actually the reason Ben decided to come with me to this appointment. It was raining that day and so Ben came into my classroom to help me bring my stuff out to the car, which was interesting because my students wanted to make sure that he pulled the car up and was going to help me out to the car! At the appointment when the doctor came in I told him of my symptoms and his words were, "Well, lets get this baby delivered!" Ben about fell off his chair and tried everything within his limited vocabulary (at the time) to get the doctor to change his mind, or at least let us go home first...the doctor was having nothing of it! So we made our way to the hospital, and began the induction process...19 hours later we would have our little girl!!