24

… Nineteen… Twenty… Twenty-One… Twenty-Two… Twenty-Three… Twenty-Four!

No, it’s not about the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning  American television series, which I know so little about. It’s actually my baby’s age. He’s 24. He is now on his 24th week. According to our favorite web-site, www.WhatToExpect.com or more fondly called WTE.com:

Your baby weighs more than a pound and a half right now and sports a crown-to-rump length of about eight and a half inches (standard letter size!). At this point in fetal development, that beautiful face (though still tiny) is almost fully formed.

Wondering what (and who) your baby will look like?  If you had a baby cam, you’d almost be able to tell by now.  What’s still missing from the picture is the fat that will be piled on under baby’s skin.  Until those fat deposits are made, that very tender skin is still very transparent, which means a close look would let you see clear through to all the organs, bones, and blood vessels. Fortunately, that see-through look won’t last much longer. Babies at this stage of fetal development are gaining about six ounces each week — with much of that gain coming from fat, in addition to growing organs, bones, and muscle.

What’s been playing on your little rocker’s stereo system these days?  All kinds of sounds can be heard by your baby in your womb: from air exhaling from your lungs (deep breath now), those gastric gurgles produced by your stomach and intestines, your voice and your partner’s (which your baby will be able to recognize at birth), and even very loud sounds such as honking horns, barking dogs, or a wailing fire truck.

I guess what’s written there about the sounds are true! On some occasions where there are loud sounds, my wife notices that our baby suddenly jerks. Whether he was startled by the loud noises or he found the noise interesting, nobody would know. However, it’s interesting how he reacts to all these even if he’s still inside his mom, safely protected from harm of the outside world.

I talk to my baby whenever I could. I try to be as close to him as much as possible. I tell him that his Daddy loves him and his mommy so much. I kiss and hold my wife’s tummy while talking to my son. It’s probably never too early to establish a bonding time with your son. I believe in that.

Last night, as I was browsing the net, my wife asked me to feel her tummy. She said, baby is awake, and he’s moving around again. I stopped what I was doing and rushed to her side. Looking at her tummy, I eagerly waited for a sign of my baby’s movements.

Thump! My wife’s fingers on her tummy jerked a bit! I said, “Wooooooooow! Was that him? Did he kick?! Wooooooooow!”

It was the first time I saw her tummy bump like that. My baby is soooo active! So malikot as our doctors would say when they were looking at him through ultrasound. It’s just funny. They have tried to catch him still. It’s like he is playing with the doctors all the time.

Wow. It’s just a miracle how a baby develops from the union of two cells to a human being… in just 24 weeks, so many things have changed, from the physical (most tangible aspect) to the spiritual. Thinking about that now, it’s just amazing how our bodies have continued to grow from these two cells to a complex network of 100 trillion cells! That’s my baby’s journey now… continuously growing, 60 seconds of every minute… 60 minutes of every hour… 24 hours of every day.