I actually have a baby bump. It is pretty tiny, but it looks more like a baby bump than just pounds I put on during the past few months.
I can actually tell that there is a baby growing in there rather than just relying on medical technology that our baby exists, which is super exciting! We also have photographic evidence to prove it – we took our Christmas card photos this week and it is evident from the photos that our baby is growing.
According to the Mayo Clinic Handbook (which is our go-to guide for all things pregnancy), Baby’s kidneys are developed enough to make urine, which the baby swallows when it swallows amniotic fluid. But it’s all good – the urine is sterile so it doesn’t harm the baby. Still, I think it is gross, just one of the many gross things that happen to a woman’s body when a baby alien is growing inside of it. Less gross is the fact that our baby may hear us when we talk because his/her hearing is well-developed. Neither Keith nor I have made an effort to directly talk to the baby, but it is an option now so we will probably try it out at some point. I have not felt the baby move yet even though the baby is supposedly moving around, likely because I cannot distinguish our baby’s movements from gas or something. It could happen any day now – I can’t wait!
At 19 weeks, Baby is the size of a mango, which I love because we live in the mango latitudes, as Keith calls it, and we get to eat mangos often. It also means that our baby is measuring about six inches long and weighs about eight and a half ounces. We have tried to get from the grocery store whatever fruit the baby’s size correlates with in a particular week and eat it. You may say cannibalism; I say delicious (at least when it’s mangos).