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ONE MONTH

Fertilization! The sperm and egg join in your fallopian tube to form a unique human being -- that's 46 combined chromosomes which pre-determine all of a person's physical characteristics.

Washed into your uterus, the developing embryo searches for a nice place to implant and is only one-sixth of an inch long, but growing quickly.

The heart, no larger than a poppy seed, has been beating since day 18 when you're just four days late for your menstrual period, and by 21 days it is pumping, through its own closed circulatory system, blood whose type is different from yours.

Four weeks after fertilization the eye, ear and respiratory systems begin to form and thumbsucking has been photographed within the first month by scientists.

Did ya know?
The baby at the fetal stage savours its mother's meals, first picking up the food tastes of a culture in the womb. And you wondered why you love spicy food so much!

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TWO MONTHS

By 8 weeks the embryo grows to 1/2 an inch, the major muscles system develops and she moves gracefully like a good swimmer although you can't feel it yet. This tiny human is perfectly developed with long, tapering fingers, feet and toes and whose skin is almost transparent with a highway of delicate arteries and veins visible to the ends of the fingers.

By 10 weeks 20 tiny baby teeth are forming in the gums, she squints, swallows, moves her tongue, and if you stroke her palm, will make a tight fist. The toes will develop in the next few days and brain waves can be measured.

Did ya know?
By nine weeks the developing baby can hiccup and react to load noises. This might explain why I still hiccup at loud concerts :-)

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THREE MONTHS

By the second trimester, your baby is now in its fetal stage and measures 2 1/2 to 3 inches in length. Fully formed the heart rate can be heard with a special instrument called a Doppler.

Here's a great quote: "The body of the unborn baby is more complex than ours. The preborn baby has several extra parts to his body which he needs only so long as he lives inside his mother. He has his own space capsule, the amniotic sac. He has his own lifeline, the umbilical cord, and he has his own root system, the placenta. These all belong to the baby himself, not to his mother. They are all developed from his original cell."

Day & Liley, The Secret World of a Baby, Random House, 1968, p. 13

Did ya know?
Just as adults the baby at the fetal stage experiences the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep of dreams. Okay... why did you say you like REM's music?

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FOUR MONTHS

Your baby is coated with soft downy hair called "lanugo" and comes in at 7 inches in length and weighing 6 to 7 ounces.

Fine hair, eyelashes, and fingerprints are all complete and this girl is all made up :-).

Did ya know?
Awake or asleep, the human fetus moves 50 times or more each hour exploring her warm, wet compartment by touch. Reports indicate she touches her hand to her face, places one hand on the other hand, clasps her feet, places her hand to the umbilical cord and sometimes walks around the womb by pushing off with her feet. Ever wonder where we got those funky dance aerobics from?

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Did ya know?
Although vision is the last sense to develop there is sometimes just enough light filtered through the mother's tissue that a fetal baby can respond when the mother is in bright light -- like when she sunbathes :-)

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Did ya know?
The baby in the fetal stage constantly learns. After birth the baby prefers the mother's voice because she has been listening to mom filtered through the amniotic fluid -- well okay...she sounded a bit like a fuzzy guitar :-)

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Did ya know?
When you see the fetal baby on ultrasound and the mother starts to laugh, you can see the baby, floating upside down in the womb, bounce up and down on its head, bum-bum-bum, like its bouncing on a trampoline. When mothers watch this on the screen, they laugh harder, and the fetus goes up and down even faster. You gotta wonder if this is why we grow up liking roller coasters so much!

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Did ya know?
The roots of human behavior begin to develop early -- just weeks after conception in fact. Well before a girl typically knows she is pregnant, her baby's brain has already begun to bulge. By five weeks, the organ that looks like a lumpy inchworm has already embarked on the most spectacular feat of human development: the creation of the cerebral cortex, the part that allows all of us to move, dance, run, speak and sing in a real human way. Well... most of us sing in a real human way :-)

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NINE MONTHS

Your baby settles down lower in the abdomen at this point in preparation for birth and may seem less active.

Her lungs are mature and at approximately 8 pounds is ready for life outside your womb. Soon you'll see her face to face!

Did ya Know?
There are some really cool photos of the baby in utero, using the latest embryoscopy and 3-D ultrasound. Have a look for yourself... there is nothing gory about these, girls!