Baby Update

I am no longer comfortable referring to the baby as Rufus. Rufus was the name for the genderless, abstract idea of being pregnant. Now there is a real baby boy in my stomach, moving and squirming. He is no longer abstract. So I guess until we agree on a name, he's back to being just the baby.

This week, according to pregnancy.org:

• You're half way there! (statements like this don't make me feel all warm and fuzzy. They make me panic about how much is left to do and how unprepared I am to become a parent.)
  
• The rapid growth stage is about over. While things have slowed down, this next stage is vital to survival.
• The baby's heart grows stronger. Find a quiet place, lay flat on your back. Locate your own heartbeat by finding your pulse. Next lay your hand on your belly. You may be able to distinguish the two heartbeats! (Nice idea, but it didn't work. I'll try again next week.)
  
• His legs are reaching their relative size. With the increase muscle develop occurring as well, you will start feeling much more than tiny flutter kicks soon! (um, my baby must be stronger than most, because I started feeling much more than tiny flutter kicks awhile ago. I think he figured out pretty quickly how to get the best leverage when trying to get my attention)
  
• Immunities are being transferred from you to your baby now. These immune cells will protect him from viruses you've already had for up to six months after birth!
• The nerve cells for taste, smell, hearing, seeing, and touch are now developing in specialized areas of the brain. Production slows down as existing nerve cells grow larger and make more complex connections.
• Your baby may startle in reaction to loud sounds. Amazingly, he can actually hear noises outside of the womb. Familiar voices, music, and sounds that baby becomes accustomed to during his development stages often are calming after birth. (I guess that means we'll be playing Lyle Lovett and The Pixies for him instead of singing lullabies...)
  
• Baby is about 6.5 inches crown to rump and weighs around 12 ounces.

The baby also has a registry now. Making a baby registry is hard. When you register for a wedding, you just go around picking out things you want. A baby registry involves a lot of looking up what things are for and calling people with kids to ask how certain functions work. Plus, finding objects that are mostly free of teddy bears and cutesy stuff is harder than you would think.