what is bean doing in there?

Lately my husband has been adamant that we no longer call the baby "Bean."  He feels that we should start calling him by one of the three names we have narrowed it down to, to see which comes more naturally, but I feel weird calling him a name that he won't be called so I've been hanging onto Beanie.  We're probably going to go with Quentin, at least that's what we're thinking this week.

Anyway, some days Beanie is full of energy and kicks like a mad man, and other days he's really quiet.  It makes me wonder what he's up to.  Is he just tired from all the kicking the day before?  What does he do in there all day/night long?  I did a little research to see what I could find on fetuses and I found a couple interesting things.

If you haven't seen these animated videos on fetal development during each trimester on Baby Center you really should check them out.

I found this article called "Fetal Psychology" by Janet L. Hopson.  It was in Psychology Today in October 1998.  It's kind of old, but I don't believe fetal psychology has changed all that much in the last 12 years or so, although I'm sure they are learning more about it all the time.

On the subject of fetal sleep patterns the article says,

"At 32 weeks, it drowses 90 to 95% of the day. Some of these hours are spent in deep sleep, some in REM sleep, and some in an indeterminate state, a product of the fetus' immature brain that is different from sleep in a baby, child, or adult. During REM sleep, the fetus' eyes move back and forth just as an adult's eyes do, and many researchers believe that it is dreaming. DiPietro speculates that fetuses dream about what they know - the sensations they feel in the womb.

Closer to birth, the fetus sleeps 85 or 90% of the time: the same as a newborn. Between its frequent naps, the fetus seems to have 'something like an awake alert period'."

So if my baby is sleeping 95% of the time does he sleep kick?  Some days it seems like he is kicking all day long.  Another part that I found particularly interesting was when it said,

"scientists are creating a startling new picture of intelligent life in the womb. Among the revelations:  

• By nine weeks, a developing fetus can hiccup and react to loud noises. By the end of the second trimester it can hear.
• Just as adults do, the fetus experiences the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep of dreams.
• The fetus savors its mother's meals, first picking up the food tastes of a culture in the womb.
• Among other mental feats, the fetus can distinguish between the voice of Mom and that of a stranger, and respond to a familiar story read to it.
• Even a premature baby is aware, feels, responds, and adapts to its environment.
• Just because the fetus is responsive to certain stimuli doesn't mean that it should be the target of efforts to enhance development. Sensory stimulation of the fetus can in fact lead to bizarre patterns of adaptation later on."

That last bullet point stood out to me, what are they doing to these fetuses to stimulate their senses and what bizarre patterns of adaptation are revealed later on? 

I also thought the part about how fetuses already have their own personalities and those personalities are manifested inside and outside the womb, "fetuses that are very active in the womb tend to be more irritable infants. Those with irregular sleep/wake patterns in the womb sleep more poorly as young infants. And fetuses with high heart rates become unpredictable, inactive babies."  It makes sense that the baby wouldn't magically get a personality just because it is outside the womb.  They are really the same people on both sides of the womb.

She goes on to say,

"The hormones a mother puts out in response to stress also appear critical. DiPietro finds that highly pressured mothers-to-be tend to have more active fetuses--and more irritable infants. 'The most stressed are working pregnant women," says DiPietro. "These days, women tend to work up to the day they deliver, even though the implications for pregnancy aren't entirely clear yet. That's our cultural norm, but I think it's insane.'"

I was talking to a woman at church who said that her first child is much more high strung than her second and she believes this is because she was working at a stressful job when she was pregnant with her first.  Luckily my job isn't super stressful for the most part, just the commute. 

I read an article in American Baby Magazine called It's in the Genes by Melody Warnick that talks about nature vs. nurture and how the baby can inherit personality traits and even facial expressions from their parents (they have seen that blind people have similar facial expressions as their family members).  I totally believe this because my personality is a lot like my biological dad's and I never really spent that much time with him growing up.  My belief system is more like my adopted dad's so I can see how living with him during my early years were molded by him.  I've also felt like I have a very different personality than my siblings who all have a different biological dad than me.  Their sense of humor is much different than mine although our core values are similar. 

I feel like my husband and I are pretty similar so I image in that our baby will be especially since he'll get the double dose of not only genetics but also the nurture factor.  It will be fun to see how his personality develops as he gets older.