Month Six:
During Pregnancy, I breathe for the baby: Oxygen in my blood is exchanged for carbon dioxide in the baby's blood through the placenta. Toward the end of this month the baby's lungs prepare for breathing. Cells inside the lungs begin to make surfactant, a fatty substance that helps a new born breathe. If you think of the lungs as balloons, it will help you understand the purpose of surfactant. Blowing up a balloon for the first time is hard, but a balloon that is already slightly inflated expands more easily from then on. In the same way, surfactant keeps small air sacs in the lungs slightly inflated so that breathing will be an easier task for the baby after it takes it's first vital breath.
Even though the babies lungs are not working yet, its diaphragm and chest muscles are already practicing expanding and contracting, and its chest wall sometimes moves rhythmically in and out.
The baby is about 10 inches in length and estimating at 1 1/2 lbs.
I started feeling the baby kick at 18 weeks and continue to feel it everyday since. Recently, over our trip to Illinois, Adam felt the baby kick for the first time and can see the movements in my belly. This is very exciting!
Adam and I had an amazing Holiday Season, both Thanksgiving and Christmas! We are both very grateful for the quality time we had with our family. All of the gifts were more than what we could have imagined to have gotten.
Thank you for your generous and thoughtful hearts.
Much Love,
Lori, Adam, & Baby Potts
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