tomato, toe-mah-toe

Yes, yes, it's [drumroll] Week 19!

Welcome to another weekly "your baby as produce," update. Now that we're rolling into Week 19, Prof. Goldblatt is weighing in the neighborhood of 8.5 ounces and is about 6 inches long. But what is that in produce terms, you ask? A large heirloom tomato. Not one of them tiny 'maters. An heirloom.*

The Professor's hair is starting to sprout and his/her brain has begun designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision and touch. I imagine that sounds something like, "Hey, you. Hearing. You listening to me? Get over there and stay there, thankyouverymuch. Now, would someone please tell Vision to get up and running? I need to make sure Hearing is behaving up in here. Here? Hear? Get it? Hey, when is Humor arriving? Hello? Is this thing on?"

Supposedly, as the aforementioned hearing gets better, Goldblatt will be able to listen to us talk into Overboard's bellybutton microphone. In today's sponsorship age, I wonder if I can get Verizon to cough up some cash for Goldblatt's college fund. In return, we'll make sure to start each in utero conversation with, "Can you hear me now?" The other thing that comes to mind is that the baby hasn't heard a word we've said up to this point. But I consider that practice for later in life, so no worries.

In other Overboard pregnancy news, she's unfortunately dealing with an itchy situation known as PUPPP, which is short for Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy. PUPPP sounds cute in its acronym form, but it's not. PUPPP is a condition where pregnant women get itchy red bumps all over.

The condition is harmless to the mother and baby, but it makes them irritable. Which is no fun for anyone around them. The other down side is that we don't know how long it will last. Maybe a few days, maybe a few weeks, maybe the rest of the pregnancy. Wheeeee!


*I admit that I had no idea what the difference between a regular tomato and an heirloom tomato were. I just figured the heirloom one was older and had more sentimental value.