Week 23: Mango

As you can see, the bump is quite obvious these days. I was actually surprised when I saw this picture at how subtle it looks... because from my vantage point the belly looks and feels huge already. But I know there's plenty more to come!
The baby is a moving and dancing machine. In fact, it took a while to pin him/her down at the doctor's office yesterday when we were trying to listen to the heartbeat. But once we caught up with baby we heard that glorious thump-thump and got perfect marks for the checkup. (For those keeping tabs, the heartbeat measured in the 140s this month.) Here's what the experts have to say...

Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango), you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.