Date of checkup: 05 May 2002

Today happens to be a holiday in Japan. They call this day the "Children's Day" or Kodomo no Hi in Japanese. This day falls within the week-long holiday which they call the "Golden Week." Of course, Mom is taking the opportunity to take a well-deserved rest from work. Usually every Golden Week Mom and Dad take off to different parts of Japan for sightseeing (last year they went to Miyajima in Hiroshima). This time, though, they opted to stay at home and hooked themselves playing with PS2 (Final Fantasy X). A good way to pass the time and have tonloads of fun. But I wonder if they'd be able to play once I come around, though. :-)

Wouldn't you believe it, but I gained another 500 grams in two weeks, so my weight now is around 2.3 kg. The doctor kept telling Mom that he is worried that I may be too big -- even told her that if I kept growing at this rate, she may have to deliver 2 or 3 weeks early! Duh? Mom is a little pissed off because she has observed that Japanese babies do tend to be delivered small (usually 3 kg or less at birth), and she just doesn't find it reasonable for the doctor to expect her to follow the same trend. Each baby develops differently, in the same way that no two pregnancies are alike.

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In the know:
At this point the baby can register information from all five of its senses. While the baby's senses may be prepared to process information, certain senses have limited opportunities to operate. Since the baby doesn't breathe air inside the uterus, the sense of smell is on hold until after birth.

The colored portion, or iris, of the baby's eye is beginning to respond to the intensity of the light by opening under dim light conditions and closing under bright light conditions. This activity is automatic and is called pupillary reflex.

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