Kaylee at 34 weeks...

Officially 6 weeks to go!

Your Baby: Month 8

Baby’s senses are continuing to improve -- when light peeks in through your (extremely) stretched belly, those tiny eyelids and irises blink and dilate. And, baby can now recognize and react to simple songs… time to start practicing your lullabies! Growth (at least inside your womb) is starting to slow, and you may notice baby descend into your pelvis at the end of this month.

Development at 13 weeks

As you begin your second trimester, your chances of a miscarriage drastically drop. Your little one is now about the size of a jumbo shrimp, 2 ½ inches long and weighing about ¾ of an ounce. But make no mistake; this is no shrimp. Although your baby is tiny, he is a fully formed baby. His head is becoming more proportional to his body every week, and it now makes up about 1/3 of his size. Eyes and ears continue to move to their rightful places, as they develop. Your baby’s neck is also getting longer, so that the chin is no longer touching his chest. Reflexes are working; and if you were to touch him, he would squirm. Hands and feet also respond to stimuli, as they open and close.

Your baby has fully formed fingerprints, which make him like no other. His kidneys and urinary tract are beginning to function, so that he is able to urinate out amniotic fluid that he’s taking in. Even though he is swallowing amniotic fluid, all nourishment is being provided by the placenta now. (source: smartmomma.com)

I love plums!

Taken from "What to expect when you're expecting" website
By now, your baby weighs a full half-ounce and is about the size of a large plum. Most of his systems are in place, though there's still plenty of maturing to do. For one thing, his fetal digestive system is beginning to practice contraction movements so he can eat someday, and his bone marrow is busy making white blood cells — weapons against germs once he's out of your safe haven. The pituitary gland (at the base of the brain) has started producing the hormones that'll enable him (or her) to make babies of his (or her) own in a couple of decades or so.

11 weeks

Yay! It no longer resembles an ugly prune!

• The fingers and toes have completely separated.
• The taste buds are starting to develop.
• Baby has tooth buds, the beginning of the complete set of 20 milk teeth.
• Baby can swallow and stick out his or her tongue.
• Whole body except tongue is sensitive to touch.
• Cartilage now calcifying to become bone.
• If it is a boy, the testicles are starting to produce the testosterone hormone.

The baby has an upper lip, toes and ears and twenty little teeth are now forming. The brain is growing rapidly and producing more than 250,000 nerve cells a minute. The heart is almost completely developed and very much resembles that of a newborn baby. An opening at the atrium of the heart and the presence of a bypass valve divert much of the blood away from the lungs, as the child's blood is oxygenated through the placenta.

The eyelids have fused shut and will not open again until around week 27. The wrists and ankles have formed and the fingers and toes are clearly visible. By this week of the pregnancy the placenta has developed enough to support most of the critical job of producing hormones.
source:baby2see.com

10 weeks along...

Our baby's growth is fast and furious at 10 weeks pregnant. He or she is nearly an inch and a half long and the size of a prune, but not nearly as shriveled (even with all the time it spends in water). In fact, our baby is really taking a human shape now. Bones and cartilage are forming, and small indentations on the legs are developing into knees and ankles. The arms (complete with elbows) can flex already, but don't run to the store for a baseball bat just yet. Though your baby's arms are taking shape and getting stronger, each one is only about the size of this number 1.

The tooth bud fairy is making her appearance this week, heralding the arrival of your baby's little choppers, which are forming under the gums. (Those pearly whites won't break through the gums until baby is close to six months old). Other systems are go, too. Baby's stomach is producing digestive juices, the kidneys are producing larger quantities of urine, and, if baby is a boy, he's already producing testosterone (yikes!).

9 weeks

* Baby has begun movement - While still too small to feel, our little one is wriggling, shifting, and dancing already!
* Most joints are formed now - and trust that your little one is practicing bending and flexing.
* Fetus will curve its fingers around an object placed in the palm of its hand - This is amazing to see! At only nine weeks, if you happen to have an ultrasound, you may observe your infant fascinated by everything he or she can lay their fingers on (mainly other fingers, toes, ears and nose!
* Fingerprints are already evident in the skin
* Average size this week -- length 0.9 inch, weight 0.07 ounce

Next doctor's appointment is tomorrow!!

Baby is the size of a raspberry at week 8

Everything that will be found in a fully developed adult is now present. Elbows and fingers become evident. The heart has been beating for more than a month, the stomach produces digestive juices and the kidneys have begun to function. Forty muscle sets begin to operate in conjunction with the nervous system.

The babies body responds to touch and the vertebrae in the neck can bend; the trunk is able to straighten. However, the woman carrying the baby will not be able to feel movement until the fourth or fifth month.

In other words, the baby feels the mother, but the mother doesn't feel the baby.

Our little blueberry

Baby's brain -- both hemispheres! -- is growing fast, generating about 100 new cells every minute. Arms and legs are emerging as joints start to form, and a permanent set of kidneys (baby's third!) is now in place. Baby has doubled in size since last week!

Mom is starting to feel the effects of pregnancy. Nausea is pretty much a daily occurrence, some days are better than others and I have been super tired. Luckily I have time to rest and take naps--back to work in less than two more weeks though!

We went on our first hospital tour last week. It is not where we will be delivering but it was interesting and we learned a lot!

Growing like crazy, baby is starting to sprout eyes, ears, nose, cheeks and chin. Those little hands and feet- still webbed like paddles- might wiggle by week's end, the heart is beating (almost twice as fast as yours!), and blood is starting to circulate.