Week 26: Childbirth Class!

Above are a couple of pictures from our trip to Indiana last week. My dad showed Jan how to drive the John Deere, then Jan took some of us girls out for a hay ride. Yeehaw!

We attended our first childbirth class last night, just another step on our way to parenthood! There is only one other couple in the class, so we were able to get very helpful information from the instructor and lots of attention. I don't want to name names or embarrass anyone JAN PIETER KOORN - but someone asked a lot of great questions according to the teacher! We have three more Monday night sessions, covering everything from natural childbirth to epidurals, breastfeeding to diaper changing and more. In case you are wondering, yes, we watched "the video" and we both survived.

One thing we learned last night is that Aspen Valley Hospital delivers on average less than one baby per day. We feel very fortunate that we'll give birth there, knowing we'll get lots of attention from the staff due to such a low patient/staff ratio. The maternity wing was remodeled within the last few years, and we know from visiting friends who have had babies since the remodel just how nice the rooms are and how special all that attention makes you feel.

Primo continues her gymnastics routine both day & night, and some days I feel like she & I are both doubling in size on a daily basis! She seems to wake up & get moving right around my bedtime, making sleep a little tough for me, but worth it in that I find all of her punches & kicks reassuring. I feel so lucky carrying this little girl around with me every day, and if losing some sleep is the worst part of pregnancy I can handle it!

And now your weekly baby update:
Your baby weighs about 1 1/2 pounds and has undergone a growth spurt in the past few weeks. From weeks twenty to twenty-eight, she almost doubles in height and now would be about a foot tall if she could stand. This week marks a major milestone in your baby's hearing and sight. Your baby's hearing system (cochlea and peripheral sensory end organs), which began fine development during week eighteen, is now completely formed, and over the next few weeks, she'll become increasingly sensitive to sound. In about a month, you'll feel her jump if she hears a sudden loud noise. Sound passes easily into your uterus, which helps her ears develop. Her eyes are almost fully formed and are now beginning to open. Did you know that all babies have blue eyes in the womb, no matter what their genetic inheritance is? A baby's eyes don't get their final color until a few months after they are born. The air sacs of the lungs, called alveoli, will be developed by the end of this week and will begin to secrete a substance called surfactant that keeps the lung tissue from sticking together.