That's what Rob's been proclaiming every night for the past few nights, but he's been wrong every single time. Persistence is the key here.... But so far Grippy seems quite content with his current environment. Cindy's early warnings to him, such as the increased frequency of so-called Braxton-Hicks contractions (practice contractions) and even a few real contractions have gone unheeded...

Grippy's seizing the opportunity in his environment of plenty to grow some more. But he's not only using the available nourishment to grow fast, he also spends a good deal on moving around. Although this is a comforting feeling on the one hand, it also is an inconvenience to Cindy, because a lot of his wiggling is aimed at Cindy's ribs (to practice kicking) and various organs (to practice grabbing).

Grippy's growth is also reflected in Cindy's belly. On the right you see a couple of curves overlayed on the picture of Cindy when she was four months pregnant. Each following line is the outline of her belly one month later, except for the last one, which only was 2.5 weeks later. At the bottom of this page, you can see all the profile shots that we have taken over the past months.

Because Grippy has been growing so fast, he is quite a bit ahead of schedule, and the doctor deemed it best not to let Grippy stay in his comfy hide-out too much longer. To avoid a C-section, she thinks it is best that if Grippy has not headed out by the 19th of November, labour will be induced. Although we would really like an all-natural birth, we also would really like to avoid a C-section. Besides, a birth that is started by hormones is much more natural than a C-section.

Some of you have entered in our little competition to guess Grippy's birth day, weight and length. To see what those guesses are, or to see who has a good chance to win the grand mystery prize, have a look at our Grippy Guessing Game.

A History of Grippy

Grippy at 8 weeks	Grippy at 19 weeks	Grippy at 29 weeks	Grippy at 33 weeks
Click on each image to see an enlarged picture, and click on the link beneath the picture to see more pictures of each age, or to get a description.

Hear Grippy's heart beat without the movie, in WAV format (134 kb) or MP3 format (25 kb), or view a prenatal movies of Grippy, which can be found in the Grippy at 33 weeks pages.

A History from the Outside

June 23, 2001	July 23, 2001	August 23, 2001
September 23, 2001	October 21, 2001	November 9, 2001