24 weeks and a dissertation on lefthandedness

Your baby now weighs around 1.5 lbs (700g), and measures about 8.8 inches (22cm) from crown to rump, but this varies from baby to baby.

Your doctor should be able to hear your baby's heartbeat, using a stethoscope or Doppler ultrasound device. If your partner puts his ear right on your belly in the right position, he might even be able to hear it unaided if there is no background noise.

Your baby sleeps and wakes in a more regular pattern now. You may notice that your baby is particularly active when you are resting.

The center of your baby's bones are beginning to harden.

If your baby is a boy, the testes will start to descend into the scrotum now. If your baby is a girl, the vagina will begin to hollow out and mature now.

Your baby can make a fist now and may already have a preference for the right or left hand.

With modern medical technology, your baby would have a chance to survive if it were born now.

Hmmm... I think this is very true, that the baby does seem to have a pattern of jumping/moving around when Heidi's relaxing. However, I have yet to try putting my ear next to C.L.'s house (Heidi's tummy) in order to hear heartbeats. I just have a feeling I would look rather silly doing this, and looking for the right spot.

Also, this is very interesting that the baby may be a southpaw already. Paul McCartney's left handed; so was Jimi Hendrix. Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Fidel Castro all are/were lefties, as are both Jay Leno and David Letterman. And there are many more examples...

Apart from the stigma of favoring the "sinister" hand, as well as smudging everything one writes (unless one writes in Arabic or Hebrew, which read from right to left), a southpaw would be more than welcome, but unlikely since Heidi and I are both right-handed.

Who am I kidding? All we want is 10 fingers, 10 toes and overall health for the baby. And above all else, cuteness that makes us weak in the knees. Is that too much to ask?