Saturday Update

So… Doctor Faith determined that I have a virus (not a virus), but that it’s taking its course normally. The rash on my neck is a little weird but nothing to worry about (as long as it keeps going away). I feel a little better every day, so there you go.

Oh yeah–Mom, I tinkered around under the frogtaco.com hood this morning. Let me know if you can read this without scrolling to the right. Anybody else, if you have to scroll to the right to read this page, that’s just not right, and you should probably start using Internet Explorer 6. If you think that Microsoft is evil, then try out Opera or Mozilla (the guts of Netscape), or, if you must, Netscape itself. I can’t bring myself to install Netscape on my machine, but I just downloaded Mozilla, and although some things don’t work too well on the main frogtaco page (I suspect Mozilla doesn’t understand XHTML), nobody has to scroll to the right (in theory).

Week 19(?) / Month Five Baby Update
The Week 19 blurb on AmericanBaby.com is boring, and who knows if we’re in that week or not anyway, so here’s the Month Five Baby Update:

Baby:
Another milestone comes halfway through this month. It’s known as quickening, and it’s the first time you feel your baby move. The fetus has been moving for a few weeks, but now that its bones are harder and its muscles and limbs are stronger, the movements become noticeable.

Almost all the follicles from which your baby’s hair will grow are in place. Some babies are born with long, thick hair, others with almost none, but it will all fall out during the first months of life. Fingernails grow longer this month, and toenails are just starting to grow.

The number of nerve cells in your baby’s brain increases rapidly this month, especially in the front of the brain, where thinking takes place. The baby’s senses, too, are beginning to awaken, and it may be able to hear sounds, such as the flow of blood, the beating of your heart, and the rumblings of your stomach.

Inside your baby’s intestines, the first stool, called meconium, is forming. If your baby is a girl, eggs are starting to develop in her ovaries. At about 20 weeks, you may be able to hear your baby’s heartbeat with a stethoscope.

Near the end of this month, several changes take place in your baby’s skin. It becomes covered with a fatty yellowish substance called vernix, which protects its skin from the constant exposure to amniotic fluid. Under the skin, particularly around the neck and back, a special tissue called brown fat is forming. Until it disappears a few weeks after birth, brown fat produces heat, which the baby needs after leaving the warmth of your womb.

At the end of this month, your baby is about 7 inches long and weighs 10 to 12 ounces.

Mommy:
Rona still isn’t sleeping very well, and telling her that she’ll sleep okay when our little munchkin goes off to college (at which point I will stop sleeping) doesn’t seem to help much.
Eating: Multigrain pancakes and turkey sausage (yum! and yum!).
Doing: At the moment, playing a duet with one of her students.
Excited: About seeing John Edward tonight.

Daddy:
Oh, you know–working³, makin’ pancakes, doing dishes, blowing my nose. The usual.

Doggy:
Playing ball with the little sister of Rona’s student. Go little Erin, go! Wear that puppy out!