Nine weeks

When I was pregnant with Harrison, Adam and I had no desire to tell anyone until we hit the ten/twelve week marks. It just seemed too soon to let anyone else know. This time, we seem to have a whole new attitude-or maybe it's just me. I just want to tell everyone already. It's no fun keeping it to ourselves. I want everyone to be able to share in our excitement. We had planned on waiting until Jan and Greg were back from Florida, but they are going to have to settle for finding out through a card and a phone call. We just can't wait until mid-March.

I also am really contimplating whether or not we will find out the gender. Last time we waited and it was so much fun to find out when Harrison was born. I loved all of the anticipation and trying to guess. I did not love when strangers tried to guess, it usually resulted in an uncomfortable trip to Wal-Mart and once even a full on belly grab. I guess I'm not sure what we will do this time. I guess we have about 11 weeks to figure it out.


How your baby's growing:


Your 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: Your 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. Your 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 your baby's basic physiology is in place, she's poised for rapid weight gain.