In the first moments, your new little one seems more like an alien than a bundle of joy, but after a bath for baby and a few deep breaths for the new parents, your little angel looks their part. Their little red face is all scrunched up, and the sounds that voice from their puckered little mouth are the most precious notes you could ever hope for. You ache any time the nurses take them for tests, and you deny offers from well meaning friends and family who offer to hold them while you get some sleep. All you want to do is be with your new baby, and you'll forego food, water and sleep to do just that! Babies An Amazing Gift From Above
Pregnancy is an amazing time, from the moment of conception, 46 chromosomes with 30,000 genes combine to determine all your baby’s physical characteristics: sex, facial features, body type, color of hair, eyes and skin. Even more amazingly, intelligence and personality are already in place within your baby’s genetic code. It is a time when the uterus expands to 500 times its normal size and your food cravings have become more than just want but an uncontrollable need. Here are some fun and interesting facts about this amazing time.
- A fetus in the womb can hear. Tests have shown that fetuses respond to various sounds just as vigorously as they respond to pressures and internal sensations.
- A four month old fetus will startle and turn away if a bright light is flashed on its mother’s belly.
- Children born in the month of May are on the average 200 grams heavier at birth than children born in any other month.
- A survey conducted at Iowa State College in 1969 suggests that a parent’s stress at the time on conception plays a major role in determining a baby’s sex.
- The child tends to be of the same sex as the parent who is under less stress.
- According to Aristotle, wind direction determined whether a baby would be a boy or a girl.
- The number of triplets born in the US in 1994 (4,594) was more than triple the number born in 1971 (1,034), an increase attributed to older age of the mothers and the use of fertility enhancing drugs and techniques.
- Did you know that a baby is born every three seconds?
- The largest number of children born to one woman is recorded at 69.
- From 1725 - 1765 a Russian peasant woman gave birth to 16 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets and 4 sets of quadruplets.
- The first child ever born on the continent of Antarctica was born in 1978.
- The average stay in a hospital to give birth was 4.1 days in 1970. It was 2.6 days in 1993.
- Rosanna Dalla Corte an Italian woman gave birth at 63 years of age on July 18th 1994!
- The shortest interval between two children born to separate confinements is 208 days. Record breaking mother Jayne Bleackley gave birth to Joseph Robert on September 3, 1999, and Annie Jessica Joyce on March 30, 2000.
- The longest interval between the births of two children to the same mother is 41 years 185 days. Elizabeth Ann Buttle of Cwmann, Wales, UK, gave birth to Belinda on May 19,1956 and Joseph on November 20, 1997, aged 60.
As amazing as these facts are it is even more amazing to see a child that was once no bigger than a pea turn into a full grown human being with opinions and ideas of its own. When I was little I remember hearing that babies were brought to us by the stork! As cute as that idea may be, the true facts are obviously a lot more complex and interesting than the “stork delivering baby” concept. Perhaps by studying these facts you’ll come to appreciate even more how babies are an amazing gift from above!
Hello, just came across your site and found my son and daughter in there, I thought you might like an update. Annie was born 4mths prematurly which brought many complications as you can imagine, but she is now a bright bubbly intelligent 8 year old, extremly creative a great reader and full of the joys of life.
Comment by robert bleackley — October 19, 2008 @ 1:31 am