14 Weeks

At 14 weeks the baby is roughly the size of a peach...




Here's what's happening with baby's development this week...

• The fetus is 3 and half inches (9cm) long.


• Weight is about 1 and half ounces (45 grams).


• The eyes are slowly moving towards the centre of the face.


• The nose is more pronounced. The ears are fully developed.


• The cheekbones are visible. The first hair is appearing.


• The kidneys are producing urine.


• In girls, the ovaries are moving down towards the pelvis.


• In boys, the prostate gland is developing.

Your baby now is peeing into the amniotic fluid round itself as well as making breathing movements. With the effect of hormones, the boys now have a prostate gland. For girls, the ovaries move from the abdomen into the pelvis. During this week of pregnancy the head and eyebrow hair develops.

Your child's bones are getting harder and stronger by the day. Your baby's skin is very transparent still. Lanugo (very fine hair) covers the baby's body and will continue to grow until 26 weeks gestational age - Generally this will be shed prior to birth. Its purpose is to help protect baby's skin while in all that water.

Think of it this way: You're a third of the way through and baby's a third of the way cooked. Now that the "big stuff" (like skeletal and organ development) is taken care of, your baby starts a period of rapid brain growth, fat buildup and detail work. Highlights this week include:

Your baby now has fingerprints! Book 'em, Danno! Believe it or not, he actually created them himself while swimming around in the amniotic fluid. As he moved his hands, the skin on the tips of his fingers formed unique ridges and folds. That's why no one on earth has the same fingerprints, not even identical twins! Cool, right? Baby's arms are now in proportion to his tiny body, but his legs are still on the short size in comparison.

Meconium, that tar-like, sticky first baby poop, is now loading up your baby's intestines, which means you might want to set aside a bottle of olive oil, one of the few things that will get the gooey poop off of baby's bottom.

Your baby continues to gain new and impressive skills such as practicing and controlling voluntary muscle movements (this will help him fling food across the room later in life). Your tiny dancer's movements are no longer the jerky, uncontrollable twitches of yore—he now moves with graceful control.


Here's me at 14 weeks...



Well, I'm 14 weeks, and feeling pretty good. There are some days that I feel like I'm getting my energy back and able to last a little longer than before. Then there are other days, where I'm just tired all day or especially by the afternoon. The nausea has definitely let up, and only shows up few and far between. I have a much larger appetite, and am eating every few hours (pretty healthy...so don't worry!) :-)

We have our next doctor appointment this Wednesday morning, and will get to see the baby again, so I'm really excited about that. The Lord has been good, and has helped me to stay at peace. I haven't been worrying about it or anxious, so I know that's the Lord. Still keep us in your prayers and keep on praying for this little one. We definitely appreciate that more than you could ever know!

Check back on Wednesday or Thursday to see the next set of pics of this little boy or little girl (and yes, you will still have to wait till the baby's born to find out...as will we!) :-)