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 Let's take a detailed look at what goes on during the nine months your baby is growing. |
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Of course, it takes a sperm and an ovum (egg) to make a baby. Once those two elements join, they form one cell smaller than a grain of salt. Contained within that one cell are 46 chromosomes, 23 from the mommy and 23 from the daddy. Everything needed to become a person is all right there in that one cell. That mixture of chromosomes decides the baby's sex, hair color, height, skin tone and eye color. |
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On the third or fourth day it's time for the cell to travel down the fallopian tube into the uterus. There this microscopic baby finds a resting place in the lining which has been specially prepared for the nine-month gestation period. |
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Between the fifth and ninth days, the fertilized egg makes itself at home, drawing nourishment from the rich lining of the uterus. Then between the tenth and fourteenth days, the developing embryo lets the mommy's body know it's there, which stops the mommy from having her period. |
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This is the time when the baby lets mommy's body know it is there through placental chemicals and hormones. This is what keeps mommy from having her period. |
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By the twentieth day, the beginnings of the brain, spinal cord and nervous system are already there. And on the twenty-first day, the baby's heart begins to beat. A week later, the baby's backbone and muscles are forming, and if you could see the baby you'd notice arms, legs, eyes and ears. |
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After one month, the baby has grown 10,000 times larger. The baby's heart is pumping more and more blood through its body. What's really fascinating is that the placenta (the place where the baby is getting nourishment) keeps the mommy's blood separate from the baby's blood, but still lets food and oxygen get to the baby. |
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The baby's hand shows five fingers by day 35 and the baby's eyes get darker as pigment is produced. The baby's brain waves can be detected and recorded on day 40. So you see the baby is developing quickly. |
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By the time mommy misses another period, the baby's liver is producing blood cells and the baby's muscles and organs are being controlled by its brain. During week 7 the baby's head is busy forming the jaw, complete with teeth buds in the gums and the eyelids are sealed shut to protect the eyes. Don't worry, they'll open again around the seventh month. The baby is even beginning to move spontaneously now. |
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By the eighth week, doctors are now calling the baby a fetus (that's a Latin word for "young one" or "offspring." The baby has everything an adult has, even though it's only about an inch long right now. The baby's heart has been beating for a month now, the stomach makes digestive juices and the kidneys are functioning. If you could touch the baby, he or she would move because the muscles are working with the nervous system. Even though the baby does move, mommy doesn't feel it yet, and won't until the fourth or fifth month. |
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You know how cute it is when a baby wraps its little fingers around yours? At week nine, the fetus can do that wrapping thing (and it would leave finger prints now, too!). In only ten weeks the mommy's uterus has doubled in size and the baby can squint, swallow and wrinkle its forehead. |
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In another week's time, the fetus has become about 2 inches long. Its face now looks like a baby's face, the muscle movements are more coordinated and the baby can urinate! |
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The baby is busy in its twelfth week--sleeping, waking up, and exercising by turning its head, curling its toes, opening and closing its mouth, even making a fist. The baby breathes amniotic fluid to help develop its respiratory system. The next week the baby has fine hair growing and you can tell if it is a boy or a girl. |
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Mommy may start to show at the end of the fourth month, and for good reason. The baby is eight to ten inches long, weighs half a pound or more, and can hear what goes on around it--like mommy's voice and heartbeat and noises outside mommy's body. |
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We're half way there by the end of month five. Baby is about 12 inches long now and mommy can definitely feel movement inside her, especially right after a loud or startling noise. |
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Babies born at six months can survive if given proper care. The baby's oil and sweat glands work now, and while inside the mommy, a special ointment called "vernix" protects his delicate skin. |
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At month 7 the baby can see, hear, taste and touch. He recognizes his mommy's voice. |
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The baby is definitely getting ready to come out by month eight. He's storing a layer of fat (for nourishment and insulation) under his thickening skin, his antibodies are building up and he absorbs a gallon of amniotic fluid every day. |
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Time is getting near. Toward the end of the ninth month, the baby is ready. The average pregnancy is 280 days from the first day of the mommy's last period. Most babies are born between 266 and 294 days, weighing between 6 and 9 pounds.
This guy is ready to take on the world! |
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© 2002-2009 Abigail Women's Clinic |
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