By this time, all the basic building blocks of our baby's Central Nervous System should be complete. This means there is less of a chance of major structural abnormalities of this system the there previously was. However, the chance of defects and minor abnormities remains throughout my pregnancy.
His/her heart function and circulation system is now more fully developed. Aortic and pulmonary valves should be present and distinct. Our baby’s heart should now be pumping at about 150 beats per minute, about twice the heartrate of the average adult.
Our baby's digestive tract is continuing to grow, especially intestines and teeth buds are beginning to form. His/her lungs are developing further and the bronchi are now branched. The truck of our baby's body is getting longer and beginning to straightening out.
Biophoto Associates/ Photo Researchers, Inc
found in How Children Develop.
All our baby's little fingers and little toes are beginning to form, although they are webbed. His/her arms and legs are growing longer and more defined with wrists, elbows, and ankles that are clearly visible.
Our baby's eyelids are beginning to form. Until they are complete our baby's eyes will appear open. Also his/her whole face is taking on more distiction.
At this time our baby's first spontaneous movements are occurring, as he/she arches it back and occassionally flexed a wrist. Obviously, these movements are still too delicate to be felt by me.
By the end of this week our baby should be just over ½ inch long (14 to 20mm) or about the size of a pinto bean.
Read what happened last week.
My sources:
Curtis, Glade B. and Judith Schuler. Your Pregnancy Week by week, 4th ed. Tucson: Fisher Books, 2000.
This book was passed along to me by my sister-in-law (the mother of my adorable niece and nephew). It pays a attention to the hormonal irrational fears and the aches and pains of pregnancy and is nice to have around.
Harms, Robert W., ed. Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.
This is the most up to date and no nonsense pregnancy book I could find, to help my imagination from straying too far.
Siegler, Robert, Judy Deloache, and Nancy Eisenberg. How Children Develop. New York: Worth, 2003.
This is the textbook from the enlightening Developmental Psychology class that I’m so glad that I took last autumn.
3 comments:
I hope you were eating plenty of brain food through this critical stage, Lora. After all, you don't want your child to end up like a certain famous Texas politician.
Amazing, isn't it! I have no idea how some people seem to imagine a baby isn't 'alive' until he or she is born. Right from this stage they're clearly living human beings, albeit small and not yet fully formed. What a great idea to do so much research at this stage.
I love looking at photos like this. So tiny yet so awesome. And you can see the heart too.
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