Your baby has doubled in length since last week! That's rapid growth, but not unusual at this early stage in your pregnancy. You have reached another milestone this week. Your baby is now entering the embryonic period.
This period of rapid growth takes your baby from a group of cells, each with a specific set of instructions, to a full human body plan. By the time your baby reaches the fetal period in just a few more weeks, it will look like the baby that you will give birth to at the end of your pregnancy.
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Your baby has now developed a distinct head, separate from its body. Limb buds are just beginning to appear, and they will become more defined next week Your baby's mouth is beginning to form. In each of your baby's jaws are ten tooth buds.
At the other end of your baby's body, a tail containing the end of the spine, is forming and runs up the back into the head.
Your baby's neural tubes are closing and brain chambers are forming. At the same time your baby's optic vesicles, are developing and will grow to form the its eyes.
Your baby's heart is in the form of tubes. Next they will fuse together this week and form separate chambers. When it does, it will start contractions and begin beating. It won't stop for the rest of your baby's life!
You may feel nauseous in the mornings, and perhaps while cooking. Morning sickness will diminish later in your pregnancy. Sometimes you may feel the way you do prior to your period with heavy sore breasts and sensitive nipples.
Your may also notice that your vagina has become a bluish or violet color, an early indication of pregnancy called Chadwick's signThe bluish tinge adopted by the vulva and vagina after about the sixth week of pregnancy. It is the normal result of local venous congestion and is an early visible sign of pregnancy.
Visit our comprehensive glossary for more pregnancy terms and definitions.. Your doctor will be able to confirm that you are pregnant by performing a pelvic exam. Don't be surprised if you feel irritable. Your baby is also making you tired because of an increase in the levels of the pregnancy hormone, progesteroneOne of the two naturally occuring female hormones (the other is estrogen) used to regulate and maintain the pregnancy. Produced first by the corpus luteum in the ovary, production is subsequently taken over by the placenta as it develops. During pregnancy a mother's production of progesterone ten times the level it was prior to conception. Progesterone and estrogen are responsible for giving many mothers a sense of tranquility, shiny hair and glowing skin.
Visit our comprehensive glossary for more pregnancy terms and definitions..
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