Week 25

A morning @ the conservatory & one active little one:

Gettin' Bigger & Better

- thank you TW200 for two years of memories. I'll miss you. -

- thank you Spring for making me feel better -

- thank you Bleeding Heart Bakery for making me bigger -

I am a pretty visual guy. I am also a numbers guy. Last week while I was sitting in a clinic waiting to see a patient I had with me a growth chart for fetal weight while still in utero. The idea is that you look up your weeks along in pregnancy and reference it to a chart that tells you approximately how much the fetus should weigh, how long it is, and a few other vital statistics. Just looking at the numbers I could tell there was a great curve, but I just had to plot it out to see it.

So here it is. Below is a chart that plots weight in lbs. over weeks in the pregnancy.


It is a rather logarithmic curve, not a linear one, and as would be expected, near the beginning of the pregnancy the fetus weighs almost nothing. In fact, it weighs less than a pound until around week 23 out of 40. But somewhere around week 25 to 27, the weight just explodes, the gain accelerates and takes off; the very nature of a logarithmic curve.

In the version below, I think you can guess where Jess is on the graph.



So, being the amazing husband that I am, I pointed this out to her. I will let you guess what her reaction was.

Get ready.

Copyright© 2007 by Maureen Shaughnessy

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

- Mary Oliver