does odo get his shapeshifting abilities

O'Brien struggles to keep the rhythm and complains that the birth is taking longer than expected. In a birthing room, a Bajoran midwife, Miles and Keiko O'Brien use percussion instruments to sound out a soothing rhythm as Doctor Bashir examines Major Kira. He promises that it won't be that way this time. Once Bashir has gone, Odo begins to talk softly to the infant, explaining how he spent months in a lab being studied and how he felt lost and alone. Before he leaves, Bashir advises that there is still a small degree of instability in the infant's morphogenic matrix and that he has set the computer to monitor for fluctuations. He says he must leave to check on Major Kira, who has gone into labor with the O'Briens' baby, but Odo is preoccupied by thoughts of the infant. Some time later, Bashir reports that the purge was almost 100% successful. Odo introduces the infant Changeling to different shapes Sisko tells Odo that the decision is up to him but that he probably could use some help ' changing the diapers.' Sisko proposes that Odo contact his old mentor, Doctor Mora Pol, for help, but Odo states that he would rather do it alone. When Sisko suggests that valuable intelligence could be gained by studying the infant, Odo asks that he be allowed to work with it, to teach it to shapeshift.

Odo explains that when he was found he had no idea of what he was or where he was from – what better way for the Hundred, and therefore the Founders, to gauge other species than by the way they treated the weak and vulnerable. Sisko asks Odo if he's sure the infant poses no threat. Bashir concludes that the infant was exposed to a massive amount of tetryon radiation, and that he will have to purge the isotopes with an electrophoretic diffuser. Odo explains that when he was found, he was as small as the infant in front of them its mass will increase as its shapeshifting abilities develop. In the infirmary, Captain Sisko and Odo regard the sick and discolored infant Changeling. Bashir advises placing the Changeling into a containment field but Odo assures him there's no need – it is just an infant. After settling a price of eight slips of gold-pressed latinum upon realizing that the Changeling is actually alive, but sick, Quark sells it to Odo. Unperturbed by the Constable's hostility, Quark explains that he has obtained something from a Yridian dealer that Odo just might be interested in – a dead Changeling, contained in an ornate container.

Quark, intruding, suggests he try a holosuite program featuring three Orion slave girls instead, much to Odo's annoyance. However, Doctor Bashir diagnoses a pinched nerve resulting from bad posture and advises that Odo try some of Worf's morning exercise classes. With his back in severe pain, Odo hobbles into the infirmary convinced that he has become infected with Alvanian spine mites.

Does odo get his shapeshifting abilities