Postcards from the Womb

2006-11-08T17:18:00.000-08:00

I'm here!

At 8:48 am on Wednesday, November 8 2006 I entered the world, weighing 7 lb 15 oz and measuring 20.5 inches. I have mommy's mouth and daddy's eyes, nose, ears and toes!

I'll have to keep this brief because I'm a newborn and all... As soon as I get used to breathing air and eating through my mouth I'll be back with the story of my birth... but for now, why don't you take a look? Aren't I pretty?

2006-11-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

I'm engaged!!!

No.... not like that, sillies! I'm only a 38 week old fetus, or a -4 day old baby, however you want to look at it! What I mean is, my head is lodged at the entrance to the birth canal... I have assumed the final position!

2006-10-22T12:55:00.000-07:00

In a little over 2 weeks I will graduate from fetusdom to babyhood... if I can wait that long! The walls keep squeezing me... Could they be trying to tell me something?

2006-09-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

Note to self: Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe out, no, wait, breathe in... DOH! Hiccup, hiccup, hiccup, hiccup....

2006-09-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it's more or less official. I will enter the world on November 8, 2006. Exact time TBA.

2006-09-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

Daddy and I have a new game. He pokes around until he finds my little foot. Then I move it somewhere else and he has to poke around until he finds it again, and then I move it again...

2006-09-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

What a month it's been...

Mommy and Daddy decided they should move out of their studio apartment and into a bigger place so that I could have a room for all of the cute baby presents people have been buying for me every since I was a little fava bean. Mommy and Daddy say it's a nice place, but they had some problems in the beginning because the carpet was destroyed by cats and the previous tenants disappeared into thin air, leaving all their stuff behind. Mommy and Daddy were homeless for a few weeks until they could get it all cleaned up and get some new carpet put in. Now Mommy and Daddy are working on my room. Mommy sits on a comfy chair with her feet up and tells Daddy where he should put everything.

I've been trying to do a lot of growing because I'm going to have to come out sooner than we had thought. When Mommy was about 10 weeks pregnant with me the doctor found an 8 cm cyst on her right ovary. While it's not dangerous, it is extremely painful and Mommy hasn't felt very good throughout her whole pregnancy because of it. Poor Mommy. And I didn't even know about it! I finally opened my eyes last week... but by then it was too late! I accidentally kicked it and it started bleeding, which hurt Mommy a lot. It grew to 11 cm... Meanwhile, something told me that I should turn myself upside down now before I got any bigger. But... the cyst is too big and I got stuck, so now I'm laying with my hard little head resting on it and Mommy is in a lot of pain.

Her doctor decided that as soon as I'm ready, I should come out so the cyst can be removed too. So... some time around Halloween I shall be making my much anticipated arrival. Which is I must get back to growing...

2006-08-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

26 weeks!

I have less than 100 days to go! Next week we'll have made it to the 3rd trimester!
Right now I'm about 15 inches and nearly 2 pounds! My little eyelids flutter and I can see light coming from outside. The view in here isn't terribly exciting, however. Everything on me is ready except for my little lungs and my little brain which is getting smarter by the minute. Since I'm bigger and heavier and stronger now, mommy can feel almost every single move I make... So I won't be able to hide out behind the placenta and pretend I'm not here any more.

2006-08-10T15:43:00.000-07:00

Daddy Dearest,

I don't quite know how to say this. I mean, when I finally find my way out of here you're the one who'll be paying for my food and clothes and flashy, noisy little toys and one day you'll teach me how to ride a bike and drive a car and send me to college and pay for my wedding and, well, you get the point. And I really appreciate it. Really, I do. Seeing that you're going to be my father for the rest of both our lives I think it's good that we get to know each other and I love it when you talk to me. But you know, you don't have to put your face right up to mommy's tummy and yell to talk to me. You've been doing that ever since I was an itty bitty embryo and I could hear you then, before I even had ears. Now that I have ears, I can hear you perfectly well if you talk to me in an inside voice from a couple of feet away. I mean, after I'm born you're certainly not going to yell right into my little ears, are you? Are you?

Love from your daughter,

Sigilwig the Fava Bean, a.k.a the Munchkin, a.k.a Itty-Bitty, a.k.a Míriam Luiza

2006-08-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or is this place getting smaller by the day? Help!

2006-07-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

24 weeks today!

With just 16 weeks left to go I measure just over 1 foot long and weigh just over a pound, which makes me about the size of the meatloaf mommy made for dinner last night. Thanks to my newly-developed inner ear I can now tell up from down. It may, however, be some time before I can tell right from left. My little brain, nervous system and lungs are still growing and now I'm starting to practice breathing by inhaling and exhaling my amniotic fluid. I've been doing this for a little while now and it's starting to get easier, but sometimes I get hiccups. If I were born right now, I would have about an 85% chance of survival, although probably not without some lasting effects. If you ask me, I just don't feel ready to come out yet.

2006-07-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

And I see that I have a comment. Someone missed me. Ha ha.
Lately it's been very very hot and that's hard on mommy. She gets bad migraines has to stay in bed with cold towels on her eyes, neck and head. We haven't been exercising as much as we had been. When mommy's feeling good she goes for a walk and I practice my gymnastics moves. She almost always stops along the way to get us a little treat like a smoothie or some juice or ice cream. When she's sick I try to be a good baby. I dance around to let her know I'm there and I always make her smile.

We're almost at week 24 and I'm getting bigger and bigger. I hiccup a lot and keep mommy up at night. It was kind of annoying at first but now I'm used to it. I'm also a lot more coordinated. I don't get tangled up in my cord as much as I used to.

I can hear everything mommy says and sometimes I hear daddy's voice too. He and mommy are both tone deaf but I like it when they sing to me anyway.

2006-07-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

How come no one ever leaves me any comments?

Aren't I cute enough? Did I say something that upset you? Is my blog just not cool enough? Come on, I'm just a fetus, for crying out loud. What were you expecting? Iambic pentameter? Astute observations of my surroundings? I am trapped inside a bubble full of liquid and my only toy is an umbilical cord that I spend most of my time trying to untangle myself from. For entertainment I lick anything within tongue's reach and suck on my own appendages. Still, I am what some might call the miracle of life. Come on, show some respect. Please? I'm just a baby. An itty bitty wittle baby. You don't want to make a baby sad, do you? Just leave me one little comment. Please? Just one itty bitty comment for the itty bitty baby.

2006-07-14T09:36:00.000-07:00

22 weeks and counting!

By now I'm starting to look like a real baby. My little brain is growing and developing, and so are my vocal chords, though I won't get to test those out for a few months yet. Most of my reflexes are active and my eyes are getting ready to open. There's still plenty of room for me to move, but in a few weeks things will start getting a little cramped in here. I have discovered that my tongue can serve as a sensory organ and I sometimes lick things in my vicinity as a way of becoming familiar with my surroundings. I measure about 11 inches and my weight hovers somewhere around a pound. 18 weeks to go!

2006-07-13T11:28:00.000-07:00

Today I was groping around in the dark and I stumbled upon mommy's belly button. I thought it might be an alternate exit, so I kicked at it for about 20 minutes. It turned out not to be a way out, but it was fun anyway.

2006-07-11T11:34:00.000-07:00

This morning I heard noises coming from outside. I'm not talking about mommy's voice. Real noises. Sirens. They were kind of scary.

2006-07-08T17:04:00.000-07:00

This morning Mommy decided that instead of calling me Míriam Isabel like she was planning to, she's going to call me Míriam Luiza in honor of her family's tradition of naming the first daughter of each generation Luiza, or some form thereof. Besides, Mommy's name is Louisa and she says that she's suffered enough with this pregnancy that she deserves to give me her name as my middle. So now you can all stop calling me Sigilwig.

2006-07-07T14:52:00.000-07:00

21 Weeks today!

I've made it to the one pound mark, and I'm about 10.5 inches long from my head to my cute little toes. My body is still covered in that soft fuzz called lanugo and that cheesy varnish, or vernix caseosa. I can still move about freely in the amniotic fluid, which I also sip on occasion and inhale to get my little lungs ready for my first breath. My little eyelids and my precious little lips are also formed and I practice blinking sometimes. I can't see anything, though. It's dark. I can feel things now, and when my mommy accidently lies down on her belly I kick her to let her know that I don't like that. I can also hear her heart beating and her blood circulating. Sometimes I even hear her voice. Only 19 more weeks and I'll be able to see her!

2006-06-30T15:04:00.000-07:00

20 weeks!!

I'm at the half-way mark! 20 more weeks to go! This calls for a celebration. I'm going to try to fit both of my hands in my mouth at the same time...

-EDIT- 20 minutes later

I got them in, but now I can't get them out...

2006-06-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

Even though I will continue to post as Sigilwig the Fava Bean, from now on I wish to be referred to as Míriam Isabel. Can you handle that?

2006-06-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

Dear Mommy,

Thank you for the ice cream that you fed me earlier today. It was most delicious. I especially enjoyed the mango ice cream that you pryed out of daddy's hands after you finished your lemon and wildberry. Just a suggestion: next time perhaps you could also have mango. Just a thought.
I know that you try to eat healthy for me and I do appreciate that. Really, I do. It's just that I seem to have developed quite a sweet tooth and, well, remember when you made those oatmeal-chocolate ship-craisin-walnut cookies and then ate them all in one sitting? That was cool. Could you do that again please? Please? Pretty please?

You will! He he he I knew it.

2006-06-26T18:40:00.000-07:00

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

My legs are finally long enough that I can suck on my toes! Yipee!!!

2006-06-25T12:20:00.000-07:00

Last night my daddy felt me moving for the first time.

2006-06-24T20:17:00.000-07:00

I want a name!!!

You promised that once you found out if I was a girl or a boy, you would give me a real name. Well? I'm waiting.

You know, I didn't have to cooperate. I could have kept my legs closed, but no. I did my part. Now I'm expecting you to do yours. I'll give you until sundown on Sunday.

2006-06-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

19 weeks today...

At 19 weeks my body is covered in a thin, down-like hair called lanugo, which keeps me all warm and cozy. A cheezy, white coating called vernix caseosa, or cheesy varnish, is also forming all over my body. This will keep me from shriveling up like a prune after spending 9 months under water. I still have plenty of room to move about freely within the confines of the amniotic sac, which I do quite often. Especially at night.

2006-06-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

I'm a girl! And look at me...

I am one FOXY LADY!

2006-06-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

Angel... or Devil?

In a few hours I am going to be on tv and I know that this is a very important day for my parents because they are very excited to find out if I am a boy baby or a girl baby. I must admit that I am also a tad bit curious myself... So, my dilemma is this: should I be a good little baby and make things easy for them, or should I be a naughty little baby and keep my legs closed, just because I can?

2006-06-20T23:47:00.000-07:00

My past 2 days can be summed up something like this:

Got tangled up in umbilical cord, hung upside down.

2006-06-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day!!!

to the soon-to-be greatest dad in the world!

2006-06-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

Today mommy had a venti (decaf) iced mocha latte and it was wonderful. Really chocolately... So I did 84 somersaults and 45 backflips and then sucked on my left forefinger. What a day.

2006-06-16T06:58:00.000-07:00

Happy 18 week birthday to me! My, how the time does fly!

18 weeks old today!!!At 18 weeks, I should look something like this...

I'm about half a pound and the size of a large sweet potato! My bones are ossifying and I have my very own set of fingerprints. I can now grab onto things, yawn, frown, hiccup and suck on my appendages. My genitalia are completely formed, but as much as I'd like to tell you my sex, I can't, because my eyes won't be open for a few weeks yet, so I myself am in the dark about that. (No pun intended) Ha ha. A year from now I'll be 30 weeks old. GO ME!!!

2006-06-15T11:09:00.000-07:00

Things to do today...

1. Practice flexing fingers on left hand.
2. Practice flexing fingers on right hand.
3. Practice capoeira.
4. Practice kickboxing.
5. Grab onto umbilical cord, squeeze and twist until it fully cuts off air supply. Let go. Repeat.
6. Suck on right thumb.
7. Time permitting, suck on left thumb.