22 weeks

This Saturday, I will be 22 weeks along in my pregnancy. Here's what's going on with our baby girl now:

The bones of the ears harden, enabling sound conduction. She can now hear voices or sounds of her mother's breathing or heartbeat. The proportions of her face and body begin to assume the appearance of an infant near its due date. A period of substantial weight gain is beginning; fat layers are starting to form. She is about 10 inches long from crown to rump and weighs about 1 ¼ pounds. You now may notice a regular, rhythmic, rapid thumping in your belly - your baby is hiccupping! Hiccups are a normal reflex of the diaphragm. She moves an average of 200 times per day. Also, she has already decided on her favorite sleeping position! Perhaps she comfortably sleeps sitting straight up with her arms crossed, her thumb in hermouth and with her chin on her chest or perhaps she likes to lie at the bottom of your tummy stretched out with her arms up. Shortly after her birth you can see how she was lying in your stomach because she will also prefer to sleep this way when she's "on the outside."

This is an amazing photo of an actual 4-D ultrasound at 22 weeks that I found online.

Click here to see another absolutely amazing actual in-utero photograph
of a baby at 22 weeks.

"I will praise you; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." Psalm 139:14

Please remember our family in your prayers, and we're still taking name suggestions!