Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone and fat is finally accumulating around it. The umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, her sweat glands are starting to develop, and those little fingers and toes now feature one-of-a-kind prints.Baby better not be thinking of committing any crimes... she's got fingerprints now. ;)
Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.
Your growing baby now measures about 4 inches long, crown to rump, and weighs in at about 2 1/2 ounces (about the size of an apple). She's busy moving amniotic fluid through her nose and upper respiratory tract, which helps the primitive air sacs in her lungs begin to develop. Her legs are growing longer than her arms now, and she can move all of her joints and limbs. Although her eyelids are still fused shut, she can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, for instance, she's likely to move away from the beam. There's not much for your baby to taste at this point, but she is forming taste buds.I'm not going around shining a flashlight on my belly, but I thought that part was pretty cool. ;)
- How far along? 14 weeks
- Total weight gain/loss: After my weigh in this morning (August 9) I'm up 2.5 pounds from when I found out I was pregnant. I've been OBSESSED with baby bumps lately, looking at other people's blogs and wondering why they have pregnancy bellies and I don't. So I have to remind myself that everyone is different, and most people shouldn't really have a bump at 14 weeks. I'm just going to continue to watch what I'm eating and to exercise at least every other day.
- Sleep: I've been sleeping really well. Molly and Maggie, however, have been getting up before six lately. Not a fan of that!
- Best moment this week: Spending time with my family in MA and asking Wendy to be the baby's godmother!
- Food cravings: Nothing really... the meat cravings have stopped, though I do find myself looking for variety in my meals. I'll keep an eye out for new things at the grocery store.
- Gender: We have our educated guess, but we'll wait until the anatomy scan on September 21 to be more certain.
- Maternity Clothes: not yet - I even wore a pair of regular jeans this past week (I may or may not have had to unbutton them in the car on the way home.)
- Belly Button in or out? in
- What I miss: martinis
- What I am looking forward to: Wendy and Joe's visit to the shore this weekend
Breakfast - egg and cheese on wheat toast with ketchup; one chocolate chip pancake; pomegranate and pear juice
- Weekly Wisdom: The women in this family were built to birth babies. You will have a great delivery! (From one of my aunts, a mother of 5!, at the wedding on Saturday. From her lips to God's ears!)
This week's big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him — a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb.
In other news: Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon — and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces. His body's growing faster than his head, which now sits upon a more distinct neck. By the end of this week, his arms will have grown to a length that's in proportion to the rest of his body. (His legs still have some lengthening to do.) He's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over his body. Your baby's liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it's doing its job right — and his spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though you can't feel his tiny punches and kicks yet, your little pugilist's hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active.
Fingerprints have formed on your baby's tiny fingertips, her veins and organs are clearly visible through her still-thin skin, and her body is starting to catch up with her head — which makes up just a third of her body size now. If you're having a girl, she now has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries. Your baby is almost 3 inches long (the size of a medium shrimp) and weighs nearly an ounce.
