9 Weeks

9 Weeks along today! Today was a good day. I didn't feel sick at all which was a nice change :) I went for a nice walk this afternoon which helped with some of the exhaustion. The weather is starting to cool off just enough that it is bearable outside. With the humidity I find it hard to walk during the day, best times are before 8am or when the sun goes down. So today was a very nice day for a walk! As for the baby... the update is below!

Our new resident is nearly an inch long — about the size of a grape — and weighs just a fraction of an ounce. She's starting to look more and more human. Her essential body parts are accounted for, though they'll go through plenty of fine-tuning in the coming months. Other changes abound: Our baby's heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form — as do her tiny teeth. The embryonic "tail" is completely gone. Our baby's organs, muscles, and nerves are kicking into gear. The external sex organs are there but won't be distinguishable as male or female for another few weeks. Her eyes are fully formed, but her eyelids are fused shut and won't open until 27 weeks. She has tiny earlobes, and her mouth, nose, and nostrils are more distinct. The placenta is developed enough now to take over most of the critical job of producing hormones. Now that our baby's basic physiology is in place, she's poised for rapid weight gain.