Home stretch of the first trimester - week 11

Your baby is now almost fully formed! At just over 1 1/2 inches long, he or she is about the size of a fig. Your baby's hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under the gums, and some of the bones are beginning to harden. He or she is already busy kicking and stretching, and these tiny movements are so effortless they look like water ballet. Movements will become more frequent as your baby grows, but you won't feel the acrobatics for another few months. You also won't notice your baby's hiccupping, which may be happening now that his or her diaphragm is forming. http://www.babycenter.com/my-pregnancy-today-app

Hoping for a smooth transition...

Well, it is officially official, I have been released from IVF NJ and am ready to find my very own Ob/Gyn group. I had a practice picked out that was recommended to me by a few friends and work colleagues. I was happy to use this practice because they were supposed to have midwives on staff. However, yesterday I found out that the 1, and only 1, midwife on staff no longer participates in births. Hmmmff. Well there goes that well-intentioned plan. I did a search in my area of practices that had midwives on staff. The closest I came is a practice in the Princeton area. This practice, the Delaware Valley OB/GYN & Infertility Group, P.C. has as an ancillary practice a core group of midwives that are part of the Princeton Midwifery Care. Why a midwife? you might ask. Besides the fact that care and delivery by a midwife was recommended by my big sis, it is also important to me to try to honor my core beliefs and values as much as possible during my pregnancy and the delivery of our baby. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this approach,  "midwifery offers an alternative model for maternal care and childbirth.  Midwifery care is more woman and family centered, more natural and less interventive than traditional obstetrical care for those who prefer a more holistic approach to pregnancy care." I have my first appointment on Tuesday next week. I will let you know how it goes.

Need some room....

Some head room that is.  The noggin seems to be accounting for half the baby's size.  Holy uterus Kelli, here he/she comes.  It could mean we may have a brainiac in our midst (actually Kelli's midst) or someone who will do well in soccer.  Regardless, we'll love that baby's head no matter how small or big it is.  Yes, I do know this is typical for a baby at this stage but just seeing the size, it is just too hard not to comment.  Now to more important facts, the baby is on track with its size and heartbeat.  We also found out yesterday that we no longer will need to go back to the office.  So this likely will be the last picture that we'll see in a long while.  We will however continue to update this space.

We are a quarter of the way there, and here's where we're at...

Although barely the size of a kumquat or a cocktail shrimp – a little over an inch or so long, crown to bottom – and weighing in at less than a quarter of an ounce, your baby now has completed the most critical portion of development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in your baby's body rapidly grow and mature. If you could take a peek inside your womb, you'd spot minute details, like tiny nails forming on fingers and toes (no more webbing) and peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin. Your baby is swallowing fluid and kicking up a storm. Vital organs – including the kidneys, intestines, brain, and liver (now making red blood cells in place of the disappearing yolk sac) – are in place and starting to function, though they'll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy. In other developments: Your baby's limbs can bend now. His or her hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over the heart, and your baby's feet may be long enough to meet in front of the body. The outline of your baby's spine is clearly visible through translucent skin, and spinal nerves are beginning to stretch out from the spinal cord. Your baby's forehead temporarily bulges with his or her developing brain and sits very high on the head, which measures half the length of his or her body. From crown to rump, your baby is about 1 1/4 inches long. In the coming weeks, your baby will again double in size – to nearly 3 inches. http://www.babycenter.com/my-pregnancy-today-app

Who doesn't like Gummy Bears!

So today was an awesome day.  We saw our baby dancing the jitterbug.  I don't know how else to explain what we both witnessed.  It was like the baby was giving us jazz hands and feet while moving its body side to side.  Seriously it might have been the best dance moves I've ever seen.  Patrice, our ultrasound specialist, said this is what they call the gummy bear stage.  The baby measured 2.97cm (a little over an inch) and we got to see the 2 halves of the brain forming, the development of the spinal cord and the umbilical cord. Patrice as always showed us the very strong heartbeat and she pointed out the baby's chin on 2 different occasions.

Looking like a real baby this week...

Your baby now measures about 1 inch (2.5 cm) long from crown to rump. He or she is as big as a cherry or grape.

Overall, your baby is starting look more human now that the embryonic tail at the end of its spinal cord is nearly gone. All of the baby’s joints are working. It can make a fist and may even begin to suck its own thumb. And it’s starting to grow 10 tiny toes.

Gonads have become testes (for boys) or ovaries (for girls). Your baby’s digestive system also continues to develop. Its anus is forming and its intestines are growing longer.

The skeleton may begin ossifying as the bones form cartilage. Your baby has also started taking its first few drinks from amniotic fluid.

Other changes abound: Your baby's heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form – as do his or her tiny teeth. Your baby's organs, muscles, and nerves are kicking into gear. The eyes are fully formed, but the eyelids are fused shut and won't open until 27 weeks.

Your baby has tiny earlobes, and the mouth, nose, and nostrils are more distinct. Now that your baby's basic physiology is in place, he or she is poised for rapid weight gain.

Thank you Dr. Darder

Today's picture is brought to you by Dr. Darder, one of the two founding members of the practice. Unfortunately the picture seen here is not as clear as the view we witnessed 30 seconds earlier.  At that point in time we could completely see some specific areas of interest like the head, hands and feet or at least what looked like a good representation of those parts.  As you can imagine by looking at the picture below, the top portion of the X axis is where the head is and just below towards the middle are two bulging areas that we saw earlier that appeared to be hands.  I'm still dumbfounded and mesmerized by what is going on in this little world(below) and complete awe overcomes me to the point where I'm speechless.  I am, however, keeping an eye out for something resembling a tennis racquet to appear next to the baby so that we could sell the picture to whoever wants to buy it and start that college fund.

Baby loses tail, gains fingers and toes!

New this week: Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your baby's hands and feet, eyelids practically cover his or her eyes, breathing tubes extend from the throat to the branches of the developing lungs, and your baby's "tail" is just about gone. In the brain, nerve cells are connecting with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. You may be daydreaming about your baby as one sex or the other, but the external genitals still haven't developed enough to reveal whether you're having a boy or a girl. Either way, your baby – about the size of a kidney bean – is constantly moving and shifting, though you still can't feel it. 

Source: BabyCenter.com