Seventeen Weeks

It's been a long week since my last baby development update. I have been getting terrible headaches again, which seemed to have faded during the first trimester of my pregnancy. They are back now and boy, are they mad. My OB called in a medication for me that basically knocked me unconscious to the point where I don't remember anything for about 11 hours. I slept harder than I've ever slept before and woke up wondering, how did I get here and who put my nightgown on me? I'm going to call his office back and ask for something a little less mind erasing. Since I generally like to know what the heck is going on and all.

But enough about me. The baby is the size of a turnip this week.



I read "she" could span the size of my open hand. Pretty crazy, huh? Still really small, but bulking up all the time. Here's what the pregnancy folks had to say about "her" this week.

How Your Baby is Growing:
Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.


And just because I think the gurus were a little lacking in the info department this week, here is another email from a different site with some more details.

How big is your baby at 17 weeks pregnant? About five inches long and more than three and a half ounces — the size of your open hand. (Open the other one too and imagine your baby cradled in both your arms right after delivery!) Body fat (baby's, that is) is beginning to form and will continue to accumulate through the end of your pregnancy. By the time your baby is born, body fat will make up about two-thirds of his or her weight (and will make all those chubby parts especially yummy).

Your baby is almost certainly listening up by now. In fact, loud noises — the dog barking, the doorbell ringing — will actually startle your baby (and also get him or her used to such noises; for instance, fetuses who regularly hear a dog barking will become babies who sleep right through Fido's outbursts). Your baby's eyes (which have fortunately finished their migration to the front of his or her head) are making small side-to-side movements and can even perceive some light, though the eyelids are still sealed. And since practice makes perfect, your baby is sharpening his or her sucking and swallowing skills in preparation for that first (and second…and third) suckle at your breast or bottle. In fact, most of the survival reflexes that your baby will have at birth are being perfected in utero right now.

And here's some proof that your baby is truly one of a kind (as if you needed any!). Within the next week or so, the pads on your baby's fingertips and toes will become adorned with completely individual swirls and creases (aka fingerprints).


Till next time,
L