Week 7

Week 7 and baby is the size of a blueberry!

Dennis and I are gearing up for our first doctor's appointments.  

The first is on January 23 with a nurse practitioner.  The topic will be family history, blood tests and an internal exam (how fun!).  So, if there's any family history I should know about, please pass on the information before then!

The second appointment is on February 16 with Heidi, one of the doctors in the practice.  I'm assuming there's an ultrasound, but I'm not 100% sure... I'll have to call and double check, or possibly ask at the first appointment.

What's happening in week 7?  Baby is 10,000 times bigger than it was at conception, most of the growth being concentrated in the head.  (Thank god babys' proportions will even out by August!)  How cool is this - brain cells are being generated at 100 cells per minute!  

Baby's mouth and tongue are forming, arm and leg buds are sprouting (and dividing into segments for shoulders, arms, wrists, knees, etc), and kidneys are starting to kick into gear.  Did you know that in this short amount of time baby is on its third set of kidneys?  These are the final set, and by the end of the week baby will start producing urine.  This sounds gross - but baby excretes urine into the amniotic fluid, swallows it, processes it, and excretes it again in one continuous cycle.  Kind of disgusting but it's getting the organs to do their jobs, right?

Baby still looks a little like a blob, but less than last week, I think.