Coming up on 33 weeks with 50 days to go

I was chatting with a colleague who raises money for another school at Vandy, and she mentioned that she had her baby at 33 weeks. CRIKEY! Corey's dad was very early (I seem to remember hearing it was about a month?), and my brother-in-law, Andrew, also came about a month early. Since 37 weeks is considered "term" (although they set the due date at 40 weeks), does that mean Larry and Andrew were born at about 33 weeks or so?

I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that Dr. Bell poked around and determined that Charlotte is in a head-down presentation. Babies are unlikely to flip around again after this point, so it's looking like we won't have a breech birth. We probably won't know whether she's in an anterior or posterior position (whether she's facing my spine or my belly) until she's born, but that doesn't matter nearly as much as head-up or head-down. We all know that babies who come feet first turn out to be a little strange (just kidding, Ernie!). Dr. Bell also mentioned that Charlotte doesn't seem to be a particularly big baby, which is music to my ears.

Here's another update on Charlotte's progress at 33 weeks (adapted from i-am-pregnant.com):

Your baby weighs about 4.4 pounds at this point. The crown-to-rump length of your baby is approximately 12 inches and the total length is around 19.4 inches. With the exception of crying, your baby is capable of doing everything that a newborn baby will do. Your baby is restricted now inside of the uterus, but still can kick and move. Your baby sleeps a lot of the time, just as newborn babies do. Your baby's eyes move in the manner of REM sleep and researchers believe that babies can dream vividly in utero. When your baby is awake, she is listening, feeling and learning. There are billions of neurons in the brain that make trillions of connections. Your baby will probably have settled into the birth position by now and your caregiver can most likely tell which way your baby is presenting. If your baby were to be born now, the lungs would probably be strong enough to function properly, but your baby may still need extra care from specially trained doctors and nurses. Your baby's eyes open during alert times and close during sleep. The eye color is usually blue, regardless of the permanent color as pigmentation is not fully developed. The final formation of eye pigmentation requires exposure to light and usually happens a few weeks after birth.

Here's what BabyCenter.com says about Charlotte:

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. She's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and her skeleton is hardening. The bones in her skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for her to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as her brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

Since Corey has one parent with blue eyes (Larry) and my mom had one kid with blue eyes (Abbey), that means that Corey and I do have a small chance of having a baby with eyes that stay blue. That would be so fun! I'm crossing my fingers.