Wednesday, December 31, 2008

34 weeks


Your Baby
Your baby kind of looks like he's coated in a layer of cream cheese these days. The thick, white substance that protects his skin from pruning in the amniotic fluid is called vernix. When he's born you'll probably see some vernix lingering in his "hard-to-reach" places like under his arms and behind his ears.

The soft fur, lanugo, that covered your baby's body for much of his stay in the womb is now almost completely gone. Your baby begins to develop his own immune system, instead of relying solely on antibodies received through the placenta. This will come in handy when some grubby relative manhandles the baby without washing his hands first.

This week, your baby measures about 17¾ inches, as almost as long as an American Girl Doll (!) and weighs almost 5 pounds, as heavy as a bag of sugar, minus the cup you put in your decaf this morning.

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