20 Weeks

Dear Baby G,

We have made it to the halfway point! I am so excited and surprised at how fast and uneventful it has been! Our next "big" milestone is 25 weeks. At that point, if for some reason my health took a turn for the worse, you would have a chance at surviving. It's good to know that, but I definitely don't expect that to happen! We are monitored very closely, more so than normal, and that has only worked to our benefit!

This week, your daddy and I were watching a show on the Discovery Health Network called Special Deliveries. This episode just happened to be filmed at OU Medical Center, and my doctor was the one delivering most of the babies throughout the episode. He has treated women with severe risks and complications. It was interesting to see him on TV when we see him every month! I feel re-assured knowing that he is the best at what he does and does it so well that they featured him on a national television show!

Also, last weekend, we experienced our first tornado warning! The storm was so loud with the hail and the wind that I did not hear the tornado siren go off. Our neighbor called our house and told me it had blown, so I put the dogs in the closet in the middle of the house, grabbed a skillet, and took off running to the neighbor's house to get in the basement. The hail was fairly large and was coming down fast, and I paid for it! I had welts immediately and then bruises all over the next day. The most important thing was being safe from a tornado, though, and I managed to make that happen! I'm sure there will be many more experiences. We are considering putting in a tornado shelter at our house. We also had lots of damage to our house -- the windows were broken, and the gutters, roof, and garage doors are all completely ruined. So, we get to go through the wonderful process of getting everything fixed!

You are growing quickly now, and we can't wait to see you at the doctor again. You have been kicking a lot this week, and it makes me smile each time it happens. Hopefully we will soon be able to feel it on the outside, too!

Love,
Mommy

How your baby's growing:
Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, he's measured from head to toe.)

He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).