Since March 8, there has been an event called 40 Days for Life (http://www.40daysforlife.com/) - a pro-life prayer vigil going on all over the world. Today marks the half-way point and they are reporting that 178 women have chosen life for their babies as a result of those individuals praying in the vicinity of abortion clinics around the world. When you look at the statistics, that 3,000 to 4,000 babies are aborted daily in our country, 178 seems a small percentage of the 80,000 babies that statistically are would have been aborted during these 20 days, but that’s 178 lives that were saved and THAT is a victory! We still need to fight for the other babies’ lives and praying for the mothers and fathers of these children and for those who are working in the abortion clinics.
This post, I will continue with my own pregnancy experience. The next ultrasound I experienced was the typical one that most women go through during the course of a normal pregnancy. It is the 20 week ultrasound. During this examination, the tech checks all the organs to make sure they are present and functioning, looks for proper brain development, measures the head circumference (for Down’s Syndrome) as well as many other vital functions for the baby. Parents are also able to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. We had a great experience with ours. The tech we had didn’t actually work at this particular clinic, but was filling in for someone who was out. We were so blessed to have her! She was thorough and obviously loved her job. We were in our appointment for nearly an hour and a half.
The development of the baby continues to be miraculous. By 12 weeks, the baby is peeing, producing insulin and digestive fluids. The brain is fully developed (though still growing and specializing) and the pituitary gland is producing hormones. By 14 weeks, the baby is practicing breathing by drawing amniotic fluid into the lungs, the prostate gland is forming in males and ovaries are descending to the pelvis in girls. By 18 weeks, the baby can hear and sense touch, can swallow and in females, all of the reproductive organs are formed. At the time of the 20 week ultrasound, the baby is about 6 to 8 inches long and 9 to 12 ounces. He or she has hair and nails, is developing all five senses, and a heartbeat is detectable with instruments outside the mother’s body.
I had started feeling my son move at about 16 weeks. That’s earlier than usual, but it felt like little flutters. By the time I got to the ultrasound, I could really feel him move. He had quite the personality, apparently not enjoying the ultrasound. He kicked at the wand, giving us a great shot of his foot, hid his face, put his hands over his heart as the tech was trying to look at it and moved all over the place. We got to see him yawn, swallow and use his hands to feel around. At one point , we saw that he had his legs crossed at the ankle. He did that all through infancy and even does it sometimes now at nearly two years old. It was a really fun experience topped off with finding out that we were having a boy ( I convinced myself I was having a girl). We got a lot of pictures, so I will try to post as many as I can.
Here is my beautiful baby boy:
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