Friday, May 23, 2008

Contractural Obligations

It's the time when talks of contractions, pre-term labor, and survival percentages begin. The chances of Squirmy surviving were it to be delivered from now on go up every week, starting at 50% last week, and rising as the weeks pass. I am thinking that if it takes after Pete, it will be late, and if it takes after me, it will be just slightly early. Perhaps it will split the difference and be on time. In any case, I would definitely like it to hang in there as long as it can, but not so long that I am alienating friends and co-workers with my 41+ week insanity.

This marks the end of week 25. Squirmy has fully developed hands and has hopefully been listening as Pete would like it to play the fiddle. It still needs some work on the nerve connections, so it can't really grasp anything or have much dexterity. It can certainly make a fist, though, because it's punching. And kicking. And rolling. Regularly. I guess there is a "count ten" exercise that some practitioners ask the pregnant woman to do, where you count each time the fetus kicks until you get to ten, and then you can stop. I want to know what defines "kick" and how far apart these movements have to be to count as separate from the previous one. I am thinking that sometime I would get to ten before breakfast. Edie has not asked me to do this, and I suppose if she does, I can get clarification from her then.

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