7 WEEKS PREGNANT!!!

Dear Baby Barnett,

You sure did make your Mommy smile when she saw you on an ultrasound with a strong heartbeat of 122 at 6w4d!!!! (see earlier post)... According to babycenter.com, this week your hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs — although they look more like paddles at this point than the tiny, pudgy extremities I'm daydreaming about holding and tickling! Technically, you are still considered an embryo with a small tail, which is an extension of your tailbone. The tail will disappear within a few weeks, but that's the only thing getting smaller. You have doubled in size since last week and now measure half an inch long, about the size of a blueberry or a bean.

You now have eyelid folds partially covering your eyes, which already have some color. You also have a tiny nose with tiny veins beneath parchment-thin skin. Both hemispheres of your brain are growing, and your liver is churning out red blood cells until your bone marrow forms and takes over this role. You also has an appendix and a pancreas, which will eventually produce the hormone insulin to aid in digestion. A loop in your growing intestines is bulging into your umbilical cord, which now has distinct blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients to and from your tiny body!

Mommy has been very lucky this time around with minor morning sickness...really more of a food aversion, which has been really hard for her around all of these Holidays foods! Speaking of Holiday...Merry Christmas little one! Today is December 25, 2012..... This time next year, you will be 4.5 months old!!!!

We love you very much!
Grandma Dason



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