The Babycue Experiments: Light and dark

At 15 weeks, Babycue can now sense light and dark, though its eyelids are still fused shut. In a related development, Babycue is now covered in lanugo, a fur it will lose by birth. This is better than being covered in Luongo, the Vancouver Canucks' goaltender. Interestingly, anorexics and other victims of malnutrition sometimes grow lanugo.

Both Babycenter and Mr. Dad have suggested that Babycue will react to the light by turning away. In the name of science, we decided to see what would happen if we shined a light on the subject.

After Smileycue peed for the 37th time today, we shut off the lights in the room and turned on our Maglite. I pressed the light against Smileycue's belly and...nothing. This is not a surprise; Babycue's movements won't be noticeable to Smileycue for another few weeks.

We also tried shining the flashlight on my belly. No movement there, either. We did discover that Smileycue's belly is more translucent, creating a reddish-orange glow.

We'll try again next month.