... supposedly. I just confirmed with my doctor/midwife's office that if I want an early ultrasound to determine my actual due date, it will not be for another two weeks. Splendid. So, until then, I am still using my best guesstimate, and therefore, I am probably seven weeks today. Yay!
I have been waiting for this particular early milestone ever since I first cracked open What to Expect When You're Expecting ... the baby is now TEN THOUSAND TIMES bigger than it was a month ago!! That boggles my mind!
Even though he/she is growing exponentially, it is probably still only a quarter of an inch long and the size of a blueberry.
The biggest fetal growth this week will be the head -- the brain cells are being generated at ONE HUNDRED cells a minute.
And, good news -- the tail has almost entirely disappeared (hopefully)!
The arm and leg buds are growing longer and stronger and are now dividing into hand, arm, and shoulder segments and leg, knee, and foot segments.
This is crazy -- the baby has now gone through THREE sets of kidneys! The ones in place now are the ones he/she will have permanently, and will being fulfilling their waste management duties next week.
The baby now has partial eyelids covering eyes that already have some color!
He/she also has an appendix and a pancreas already!
I'm sorry I keep ending every sentence with an exclamation mark! I just can't stop!
Anyway, that's week seven for the baby. Week seven has started out relatively okay for me. I read that 75% of women deal with this "all-the-livelong-day" sickness, and of them, half will feel better by 14 weeks, and MOST of the rest will feel better a few weeks after that. So ... the odds are on my side! I'm not okay, but I'm also not in the fetal position, so I've got that going for me.
Something else I had never read before -- I currently have 10% more blood than I did before pregnancy, and by the time the baby is full term I will have 45% more blood! Crazy.
Well, that's about all. I can't wait to get into the second trimester and start seeing and feeling more exciting changes (that don't involve nausea and huge, painful boobs!).
