Week 19

Your baby weighs about 9 ounces (260g) and measures about 5.6 to 6.4 inches (14 to 16cm) from crown to rump.

Her skin is thickening and developing multiple layers- the epidermis and the dermis, the deeper layer where it will form fat. Your baby is now also developing a waxy protective coating for her skin called vernix caseosa. The vernix protects your baby's skin which is continuously submersed in amniotic fluid. Vernix, which is particularly thick around the eyebrows is held in place by tiny downy hairs called lanugo.

Your baby can now grip with her fists. Toenails and scalp hair are growing.

At this point, it may be possible to determine the baby's sex by ultrasound, if the baby cooperates, but the ultrasound technician will rarely guarantee the sex based on the ultrasound results as mistakes are sometimes made at an early ultrasound.

You can hear the baby's heartbeat with a Doppler ultrasound device or a stethoscope.

18 Weeks

Your baby measures about 5.2 to 6 inches (13-15cm) from crown to rump and weighs about 7 ounces (200g).

The buds for the permanent teeth are forming behind those that have already developed for the first teeth.

Your baby's nervous system and brain development continue at a spectacular pace. By this week, your baby's motor neurons, which connect muscle to the brain, have grown into place so that your baby can consciously direct her movements. Millions of neurons inside your baby's brain are growing and forming connections and the nerves in her body are being covered in a fatty substance called myelin.

Your baby's ears are now placed on the sides of her head and her limbs are now in proportion. Your baby's tiny foot is just one inch long, but is in perfect proportion to the rest of her leg.

Your baby can hear your voice and recognize it.

New Carpet!

Well, it's been a long 3 years, but we finally got new carpet upstairs and along the stairs!  We decided to pull up all of the old stuff ourselves in order to save a couple of hundred bucks, so the furniture all had to be moved to areas that were not getting new carpet.  Many items were pushed into the upstairs bathrooms.  The rest was taken downstairs to the living room.  Our house has been in a state of disrepair for the past 2 weeks, so now I am on a mission to go through all of our stuff and get rid of as much "junk" as I can.  I was able to go though a lot yesterday and threw away 4 large garbage bags full of junk.  I just barely made a dent in the stuff to still go through, but it's looking better already! 

16 Weeks

We had our 16 week appt this morning.  Baby was moving all over the place while the nurse was trying to find the heartrate.  It took quite a while to get the numbers because the baby was such a little busybody.  She finally got the heartrate.  It ranged between 155-160.  She even saw my stomach moving from the baby.  Too cool!

Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.

Week 15

I missed out on last week's post because my dad had a stroke.  He's doing fine now, but last week was just really hard.  We'll pick up where we left off.

Fine hair called lanugo covers your baby, who now measures about 4.3 to 4.6 inches (10.8 to 11.6cm) from crown to rump and weighs about 2.8 ounces (80g).


Fingernails are well formed and the arms and legs may be seen moving on an ultrasound. Your baby already has his own unique fingerprint pattern!

Your baby can hold his head erect and he can also make faces with his slightly developed facial muscles. Your baby may practice squinting, frowning and opening and closing his mouth.

Your baby's bones have enough calcium deposits to show on an X-ray. If your baby is female, her ovaries will be in place in her pelvis and more than five million ova (some of which may be fertilized to become your own grandchildren in another generation!) have formed.

Week 13

Baby measures about 3.2 to 3.5 inches (7.6 to 8.9cm) from crown to rump and weighs about 0.9 ounces (25g). Your baby is now nourished by the placenta.

The face is developing and the cheeks and the bridge of baby's nose are appearing. The ears are moving from the sides of the neck to higher on the head and the eyes are moving closer together. Your baby's external genitals are now distinct and may be recognized on an ultrasound. Your baby will move away from stimuli near your tummy, such as noise and light.

Your baby's eyebrows have formed and a small amount of hair, called lanugo, has appeared all over the body. Lanugo, which will be shed before birth and replaced with the hairs with which your baby will be born, is thought to have a protective function.

Insulin is present in your baby's pancreas. Some bones may be well outlined. Your baby's thyroid gland, already developed by this week, begins to make hormones.

Baby boys begin to develop the prostate gland at this time and the ovaries of baby girls descend from the abdomen into the pelvis.

12 week ultrasound

This is the baby at 12 weeks 0 days.  We went in for the Early Screening that screens for Down's Syndrome, Trisomy 13, and Trisomy 18 yesterday.  According to the Dr., the ultrasounds looked good, but we will know more in the next week or so when they get the bloodwork back.  The baby's heartbeat was beating a strong 159 beats per minute and the NT measurement was 1.4, which according to my internet research is a good measurement.  We go back to the Dr on Feb 22 at 8:15am and will schedule the "Big Ultrasound" for a month after that.  At that ultrasound, we have the option of finding out the sex, but we have decided not to, so for all of you that want to know, you'll just have to wait.  Believe me, I want to know as bad as anyone, but only because I am such a planner.  We will all know soon enough!  Keep checking back for updates.  I will try to update as much as possible with baby news and things that Kameron is doing.