During your 11th week of pregnancy, your baby-to-be’s body still may look a little strange. At this point in development the head makes up nearly half of his body size. Don’t worry, in the next few weeks the rest of his body will catch up. Right now, part of your baby’s small intestine coils around the umbilical cord outside his body — this will change soon, too.
Read MoreWeek 10 marks a milestone for your baby-to-be. All her cells have been directed to their places — brain tissue is growing rapidly, muscles are forming, fingers and toes are becoming defined. At about 10 weeks, Baby’s fingernails even start to appear. Soon, she’ll have toenails as well. Baby also has eyelids — but the bottom and top halves have fused together and will keep the eyes shut for several more weeks, like a kitten’s. Ears, which (oddly) began developing on the neck, are moving into their normal place on the sides of the head. The baby can now swallow amniotic fluid and its life-sustaining organs (think heart, brain, liver, kidneys, intestines) are beginning to work. And her tiny heart, which already has claim on yours, has all four chambers now.
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During your 9th week of pregnancy, your baby is busy growing. Her face looks more baby-like each day — her eyes are developed but concealed, and her nose, lips, and ears are becoming more defined. She’s also starting to exercise her expanding muscles. Her fingers and toes are looking less like stubs. Although she’s a wiggler — and you could see that on an ultrasound — she’s still so small that you won’t feel these movements. Her reproductive organs are developing, but even if you sneaked a peek you wouldn’t be able to tell that she’s a she (and neither could your doctor at this point).
Read MoreNo wonder you’re excited to tell someone about your pregnancy. Your baby is no longer a mass of cells, but he’s looking more and more like a miniature baby-to-be. During your 8th week of pregnancy, your baby’s face is becoming more defined: eyelids have formed, his nose is beginning to protrude, and his upper lip is taking shape. Where there once were only stubs, fingers and toes are starting to develop from his arms and legs. His heart is beating quickly and strong inside his tiny body.
Read MoreThis is another big week for your wee one. Early in week 7, the embryo still looks like a tadpole, but by the end of the week it will have transformed into a tiny being that’s distinctly human-like. Its body is continuing to lengthen, the arms begin to bend at the elbows and curve around the heart, which is beating even more rhythmically now. By the end of this week the embryo’s whole skeleton — made of bendable cartilage, like a shark — will be fully formed.
Read MoreYour embryo is growing at lightning speed, adding 1 millimeter to its tiny self each day. If that doesn’t sound like a lot, imagine that you grew by one-third overnight and you’ll appreciate how hard the little tyke is working! By the end of this week the embryo’s head will be bigger than its body.
Read MoreIn week 5, Baby’s still just an embryo, but it’s growing more furiously and changing more rapidly than it will at any other time in its life! Your baby’s forming a “C” shape, sort of like elbow macaroni. This tiny tube-shaped being already has a head, back, front, and … tail. (Don’t worry, the tail gets absorbed into the body.) At the beginning of this week, the embryo already has 125,000 cells — enough to fill every seat in two NFL football stadiums.
Read MoreSome women swear they feel the fertilized egg hunker into the lining of the uterus and get cozy. (The official term: implantation. The feeling: A twinge similar to ovulating). The rest of us won’t have any notion we’re pregnant for at least another week. While we’re oblivious, Baby’s getting busy. During week 4 the blastocyst burrows into the womb and separates into cells that will become the placenta and cells that will become the baby
Read MoreTwenty-four hours after conception, your baby-to-be exists as a cluster of rapidly growing cells. At this early stage, the clustered cells begin traveling from the point of fertilization in the fallopian tube to the final home in the uterus. At this point, your developing baby relies on nutrients stored within the egg cell to survive; it will still be a few days before it’s implanted in the uterus and the placenta begins to form.
Read MoreYou may not have conceived yet, but your body is still preparing for a potential pregnancy. Every time you ovulate, the lining of the uterus thickens. If no fertilized egg is implanted in the uterus, the lining sheds (menstruation). When you do conceive, your healthcare provider will ask for the date of your last menstrual period (LMP) to calculate your due date.
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