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Even though it's my second pregnancy and I'm much more relaxed about things the second time around, I still enjoy reading those pregnancy week-by-week calendars that talk about fetal development.  Sure, I learned this at one point or another during college biology or medical school anatomy class, but it's entirely different when it's you and your baby.

I like knowing how big he's getting, what's developing that particular week, where he is on the whole ready for prime-time scale. Fingernails? Great! Eyes no longer on the side of the head like a fish? Super! Filling in with fat? Bring it on, fat cells!

I also can't help but read ahead to the next week, and the week after that, and the week after that....because it's just so exciting to imagine all of these advancements happening on the inside.

I read that this week, my 28th week, the eyes can now open instead of being fused shut. It sounds great....but, what exactly is baby seeing?

I started thinking about how strange it must be there, in utero, eyes opening to blackness (I mean, there's no lantern in there, right?), floating in fluid, and listening to the jammin' rhythms of my blood flow.

When you come to think of it, it's downright ALIEN. If not amphibian. It just strikes me as being so strange that human fetuses develop this way, in a fluid-filled environment like sea creatures, only switching to air-breathing beings with that first breath.

I look at my 2 1/2-year old daughter, this largely independent, willful child with an amazing ability to communicate, and it's hard to imagine that whole intra-uterine scene with her in there. How did THAT come from in THERE?

And then, I'll feel my baby do his ol' kick and turn routine which he is so fond of (particularly between the hours of N to N+1, where N= time that DrMommyKC lies down to go to sleep)  and think about how crazy and alien this whole pregnancy thing is.

 

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