Week 23

Whoa…you can definitely tell the difference from when I wear regular jeans (last week’s picture) and maternity pants (this week’s picture).

As for baby, he is now more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango). His nostrils are unsealed now, and he’s capable of muscular breathing, but his lungs need a little more time to mature. His brain is still growing rapidly inside his skull, which has four plates that aren't completely closed to allow for that brain growth. Even after birth, these skull plates won't be completely joined because the human brain triples in size during the first year of life! His lips are more distinct, and his eyes may flutter open occasionally, though he won't really open them fully until the 7th month. He has more pigment in his skin this week, but he is still quite red and wrinkled. The fat that he is accumulating quickly is starting to fill in some of those wrinkles. Loud noises are becoming familiar to him and he is reacting to sounds outside the womb. Therefore, he probably hates the sound of the alarm clock as much as I do!

As for me, this week I have felt my stomach getting harder while seeing it getting rounder. There has been a lot of activity this week inside my tummy too! Baby Huth is becoming an acrobat in his little cocoon. I feel him most right after dinner when I am relaxing on the couch. The past few days though, he has been wide awake right around my bed time. I hope this isn’t a pattern for when he is actually here! Haha. Justin got to read one of his favorite books to him last night, Mike Milligan and his Steam Shovel. I guess Baby really enjoyed it because a couple of minutes later I said “Whoa, that was a big kick.”  Justin quickly put his hand on my stomach and a few seconds later Baby delivered another swift kick to my uterine wall and Justin felt it!