Tuesday, July 29, 2008

9 weeks and slowly preparing for bar leaning

Today is day number 64, I am 9 weeks and I am starting to look more and more human:


My essential body parts are accounted for, though they'll go through plenty of fine-tuning in the coming months. My heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form — as do my tiny teeth. The embryonic "tail" from my last week is now completely gone.


My organs, muscles, and nerves are kicking into gear. Gonads have become testes (for boys) or ovaries (for girls). Although the external sex organs are there, I won't be distinguishable as male or female for another few weeks.


My eyes now are fully formed, but my eyelids are fused shut and won't open until 27 weeks. I have tiny earlobes, and my mouth, nose, and nostrils are more distinct. Toe rays are present as the toes begin to form. I can move away if touched through the uterine wall, and can spontaneously move as well.


The placenta is developed enough now to take over most of the critical job of producing hormones. Now that my basic physiology is in place, I’m poised for rapid weight gain. Hardening of the bones may begin.


And… I have elbows! Yupiiii! I can start practicing leaning my elbow on a bar, my dad says I will need it in 18 years from now!


I have 216 days or 31 weeks left, and we are 22.1% of the way there. I probably weight around 1 gram now and I am about a size of a grape.

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