Shh! She can hear you!

Wow! 25 weeks pregnant. 15 weeks to go. BGB is about 13.5 inches long now, and weighs in at a whopping 1.5 pounds. She's moving around a lot and her ninja moves are now every day entertainment for all of us.

Everything is going great so far. My blood pressure has been perfect, I've gained "an appropriate amount of weight" and I'm hoping to start feeling the effects of my thyroid pill soon. (A little more energy would be nice until I'm too big for it to matter any more.) We rescheduled an OB appointment this week because our doc had the flu but we'll go next week and also go for our glucose test. Our next trip to Mount Sinai is the following week, when we'll get a better idea of how those red flags are progressing.

My hormones are raging right on schedule. TV shows, movies and songs that reference my daughter or my child, bring on the water works. Steve was worried when I started weeping on the drive home on Monday night. I wimpered "Everything is fine. It's just my hormones and this stupid song!' as Melissa Etheridge's "Gently We Row" played and she sang

"I wrapped my arms round my own daughter
as she fell into her place and time
and as her mind creates her illusions
I won't complicate hers with mine
She looked into her mother's eyes
she said tell me what I should believe"    

I may have the most extreme reactions, but it's not just me. BGB is at the forefront of our minds more and more everyday. Steve and I are collecting stuff and planning her room, Tasha is prepping to come stay with us for a little while around the birth, and Jonas is barely containing his excitement over becoming a big brother.

Jonas joins me on the couch every day, puts his hand on the belly and feels her kick. He loves feeling her move around and as it gets stronger and stronger, so does his imagination and his protective nature.  We've got a book called "Conception to Birth" that details the baby's development with in-utero pictures. He asks a hundred questions and we use the book and a couple of websites to figure out the answers together.

We recently read this cool fact: 

"Your baby's ears are fully functional now. And since they are, you may notice that loud noises and sudden movements can startle the little bugger. She's getting used to the everyday sounds inside the womb: the sound of your heart beating, your lungs inhaling and exhaling air, the growling of your stomach because your partner promised he'd be right back with that poutine and he's taking forever! She'll even be able to hear your voice when your partner finally arrives and you ask him where the bleep he's been! So talk nice!"

A week or two ago he came up beside me and started whispering in my ear about something he wanted to do to surprise the baby when she gets a little older. When I asked him why he was whispering he answered that "It's a secret and I don't want her to hear me. It's a surprise!" That was before we read the above quote, when we only knew that her ears were fully formed and starting to work.
 
Now, an almost daily quote in our house is "Shh! She can hear you!". Questionable language (Holy cow! How strict are they in schools today? Geesh!), future surprises for her, conversations, tv shows or movies that are ok for a nine year old but may be a little too old for her .... You name it, the Hearing Police is on patrol to make sure we only use baby appropriate language unless we whisper.

On the flip side, it's also important to him that she hears our voices. He talks and reads to her every day, and wants Steven to do the same. He wants me to sing to her daily and likes it when we put our mp3 headphones on the belly so she can hear other music. Of course, that playlist has to be approved by him. Poor kid isn't even born yet and her big brother is already bossing her around.  ;)

Cheers!