Dear Gestating Baby: 18 weeks

Dear Gestating Baby,

Wow, 18 weeks already. That means you have been alive for 16 weeks, or four months. According to the experts, you are now between 6 and 8 inches long, which just blows my mind. That’s as big as a Subway sandwich! And you weigh about 6 ounces, which is about as much as a small can of soup.

I’m going to change the subject now, because that line of thought is making me hungry. Mind you, just about everything does, nowadays. I try to eat every 2-3 hours but it often feels like I get hungry again about 20 minutes after I finish eating. And mostly what I want is chocolate and other sweet things. If there’s any truth to the old wives’ tale that mothers of girls crave sweets and mothers of boys crave salty foods, I could make a case for there being two or three of you in there, all female and all begging madly for chocolate.

So, according to all the websites I read your ears and hearing are well-developed enough now to hear my heartbeat and the sounds of my digestive system, and any day now you’ll be able to hear sounds outside the womb as well. You might hear a lot of Christmas music, if you tune in over the next few weeks. It’s my favourite time of year, and I bet it will become one of yours too. You’re already going to be getting some presents this year from your eager grandparents, even though you’re not even here to unwrap them yet! You might also hear your dad and I talking to you, as we try to do a couple of times a week. The time is coming soon when you’ll be kicking in response to the sound of our voices, which is pretty exciting. I can’t wait to feel that evidence that you are there, and to cherish that connection with you.

In just a couple of weeks, we are going to go get an ultrasound which will allow us our very first glimpse of you. I hope you are in a co-operative mood and allow us to see whether you’re a boy or a girl, but more than that I hope the ultrasound will show us that you’re a happy, healthy baby with all the parts in the right places. Maybe you could give us a thumbs-up to let us know all is well? We’d appreciate it.

The past few weeks have been pretty fun for me, as I am really starting to look pregnant and many people around me are commenting, complimenting, and congratulating. I try to glow blissfully in response. Between your auntie Sara and your auntie Sue, I have a whole lot of maternity clothes to get me through the next 22 weeks (and beyond).

Speaking of your auntie Sue (even though she’s not really your auntie), she has a daughter who’s about a year older than you, so you’ll always have someone to play with. We get to take care of her once in a while, and she is having quite an effect on your dad. He told me yesterday that he is feeling much more excited and confident about fatherhood, and that he is even starting to get impatient to meet you, and hold you, and play with you. I know that the next five months will fly by, though, so you just stay in there and keep on growing until we’re ready for you next Spring.

Love,
Mama