Baby's first...Smile
During the pregnancy The Fat Lady was unsure about foetal movement in the early stages of the weeks that are normal to start feeling it, but I was sure I had felt the baby before she was as sure. How? I used to pin my ears to the bump (though at that stage there was no bump to speak of) and could hear fluid gurgling. I got a definite movement in the ear one night that The Fat Lady hadn’t felt. Will the development continue in this way in “the outside world”?
How long until…? Sure it will. For the first 3 weeks I’ve missed a hell of a lot, being in work for long hours and weekends too. What I didn’t miss last night was MOTS shouting through thinking she’d got the first smile. At 22 days? Well, the health visitor did say to look out for it in the next week or so, and the “norm” is 4-6 weeks. I’m convinced I got one shortly after too, no hunger, clean nappy, winded, comfortable, being rocked in Daddy’s arms, eyes open wide looking up at me looking down at him, and while I chatted away I’m sure I got a real smile.
So how, exactly, do I think it was a real smile rather than a grimace? There was nothing to grimace about, no wriggling, no discomfort at all, no demands, just gazing and listening going on. And it’s supposed to be a reaction to voice and face, which this was. So I’m happy with it, MOTS is happy with it, and with the way he smiled I’m sure baby was too.
We could be wrong, but that’s our first five nines (99.999%). Any doubts? Of course, otherwise there'd be a one and two zeros in there. Why the doubt? All the way through pregnancy The Fat Lady never strayed from the path of normal bump size at all. So for all those who commented on her being big, small, neat, number 37 bus, all wrong I'm afraid, she was bang on normal all the way. But then the doubt is only 0.001%, so in the grand scheme of things I'm more likely to win the lottery tonight. And as it's Thursday and there isn't a draw...
This got me looking for development milestones on the tinternet. And the usual sites came back, so I'm happy enough with the returns. Once I've got a better feel for the websites I'll start posting links in the links section and in each post when appropriate - yes, I know I haven't for a while, but the ones there just now were relevant to particular posts, so I'll continue in that manner.
