Week 22: Our Munchkin Boy is a Papaya

Happy holidays and welcome to Week 22: the week of the PAPAYA. We hope you all are spending some wonderful time with friends and family. This is such a great time of year. We can't believe that this time next year, we will have a 7 month old little guy! Crazy how the world works!
So everyone seems confused that some of the week's fruits seem smaller than the previous week. Hopefully this will help: It's not about the overall size of the fruit. They are comparing the length of the fruit to the size of the baby.

I can't believe the baby can hear other things besides me this week (and the baby can hear me more clearly). J.D. and I are going to read the little guy some books tonight! Anyone that wants to read, let me know!

I'm continuing to feel great! Check out the bump this week:

At 11 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash) and almost 1 pound, your baby is starting to look like a miniature newborn. His lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and he's even developing tiny tooth buds beneath his gums. His eyes have formed, but his irises (the colored part of the eye) still lack pigment. If you could see inside your womb, you'd be able to spot the fine hair (lanugo) that covers his body and the deep wrinkles on his skin, which he'll sport until he adds a padding of fat to fill them in. Inside his belly, his pancreas — essential for the production of some important hormones — is developing steadily.
His fingernails are almost fully grown, and his organ systems are becoming more functional and specialized. He has a distinct pair of lips, and his first canines and molars are developing below her gum line. He looks like a miniature newborn. Blood is traveling through the umbilical cord at four miles an hour, fueling her growth with oxygen and nutrients.

• Your baby weighs close to a pound at this point!
• Your baby can now hear your conversations more clearly than before!. When you talk, read, or sing, expect her to hear you. Studies have found that newborns will suck more vigorously when read to from a book they heard frequently in utero.
• Eyelids and eyebrows are fully formed.
  
• Fingernails have grown to the end of the fingers.
• Be prepared for all those "Why" questions coming! Your baby's brain has entered a stage of rapid growth, especially in what's called the germinal matrix. This structure deep in the middle of the brain serves as a kind of factory for brain cells and disappears shortly before birth. But the brain's amazing expansion program continues until around the five birthday.
• With some help from mom, baby's liver is starting to break down bilirubin, a substance produced by red blood cells.
• If your baby is male his testes begin their descent to the scrotum.
• Primitive sperm have formed and he is producing testosterone.