Happier Cows

Your adorable little fetus is busy with thumb sucking, toe wiggling, and (not so cute but equally amazing) making urine and breathing amniotic fluid as the liver, kidneys and spleen continue to develop. Lanugo (thin, downy hair) is growing all over the body for warmth. 

How your baby's growing:

This week's big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him — a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb.

In other news: Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon — and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces. His body's growing faster than his head, which now sits upon a more distinct neck. By the end of this week, his arms will have grown to a length that's in proportion to the rest of his body. (His legs still have some lengthening to do.) He's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over his body. Your baby's liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it's doing its job right — and his spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though you can't feel his tiny punches and kicks yet, your little pugilist's hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active.

• How far along? 14 weeks
• Total weight gain: +2. Starting to feel a little better.
  
• How big is baby?  A lemon.  
• Maternity clothes? Want more.
• Sleep? Not enough.Never enough!
  
• Best moment this week? I developed an aversion to chicken, but started feeling better yesterday and did fine with it.  It's the little things...we have a freezer full of chicken.
• Movement? No...but something feels weird sometimes. 
  
• Food cravings? Nothing really sounds good still, but things aren't sounding as bad either.
  
• Labor signs? Not remotely.
• Belly button in or out? Innie 
• What I miss: craving food.
• What I'm looking forward to: Hearing the heartbeat on Wednesday.
  
• Milestone: Entering the second trimester!