the missing fourth trimester

Another post written by Kristin...

There's no place like home. - Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz

The missing fourth trimesterWe've been reading about the "missing fourth trimester" — a theory that asserts that babies really need another trimester to develop (and that it's because of their brain size that we give birth "prematurely" after only three trimesters), hence the need for mimicking the conditions of the womb (e.g., shushing, swaddling, rocking/swaying, etc.). And we've found that Fern responds exceptionally well to those interventions, proving the theory to be true (OK, OK, so our n of 1 isn't exactly scientific)! Each evening has been getting easier and easier with her. She still has fussy moments, but we can readily trigger her "calming reflex" so that she thinks she's back in utero.

Of course, it could simply be that the baby Zantac we are now giving her after some rather unsettling vomiting spells may be taking effect ... well, whatever ... the point is that something's working and we don't have any need to isolate the variables (here I go geeking out again)!