{36 Weeks}

Wow, I have only 1 month to go before this little man will be here. As the days and the weeks go by I often think about what he will look like. What features will he get from me and which ones will he get from Dave? Things I hope he doesn't get from me: my gag reflex, red cheeks when I do physical activities, and my cholesteatoma (An abnormal skin growth in the middle ear behind the eardrum. Cholesteatoma can increase in size and destroy the surrounding delicate bones of the middle ear.) Things I hope he doesn't get from Dave: the gap between his large toe and 2nd toe, his coloboma (occurs when the eye stops growing before it is fully developed). But, if he does get any of these features, we will love him no matter what. Plus, we know how to help him through it. I can't wait to see him.

How he is growing...
Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. He now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) (mmm...crenshaw, Dave's & my favorite melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. He's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered his body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.