This is Your Baby: Mouth

This is your baby, and the source of where all that glorious noise is coming from is their mouth.

Developing a mouth is no small feat. There are nearly 20 different muscles that originate in the bone and connect to the skin.

Most of these are used for smiling, frowning, and chewing alone. Everything required for taste and speech, including the teeth, lips, and tongue, is formed by eight weeks of gestation.

The tongue print is just as distinct as the fingerprint, acting as one of the greatest reminders that the baby in your womb was made especially for you.

Your baby's mouth is how they communicate, even when they aren't able to speak. Although they won't be verbal until several years after, they can do things like yawn and grimace even before they're born.

They may even flash a few smiles, usually after 24 weeks. And once they do make their long -anticipated arrival, they will talk the only way they know how.

In fact, much of what your baby experiences and expresses over the course of their life will be done so through the use of their mouth.

Speaking, laughing, frowning, reading, singing, giving kisses, comforting others, blowing out their birthday candles, and even saying their wedding vows.

Those little lips inside you are the same mouth that will say an immeasurable amount.

They will tell you they need help, that they like the color green, and most importantly,

I love you, Mama. What's more, they'll learn what words to use and not use from listening to you speak words of truth that will follow them all the days of their life.

And don't forget, as you teach them what to say and how to say it, you can teach them how to use their mouths to speak on behalf of others that cannot use their own.

This is the mouth of your baby, the very same mouth that they will have and use for the rest of their lives.