Raspberries are Good!

How's our baby measuring up this week? At a length of about half an inch right now, our baby has graduated from blueberry-sized to raspberry-sized. But weekly growth is getting a bit hard to estimate, and here's why: Growth occurs at about the rate of one millimeter each day, but that growth isn't necessarily just in height. Spurts can occur in the arms, legs, back, and other parts of our baby's body. So, big changes will be occurring every which way in the coming months.

What else is changing right now? A close-up view of our little embryo (say cheese!) would reveal a more baby-like appearance (and thankfully, a less reptilian one). You'd see an upper lip forming, the protruding tip of that cute button nose, and tiny (and very thin) eyelids. And check out those hands and feet! Our baby's webbed fingers and toes are differentiating now.

All this growing is exciting for our baby too. His or her heart is beating at the incredible rate of 150 times per minute. (That's twice as fast as our hearts beat.) Our baby's digs are growing, too. Amniotic fluid increases at a rate of about two tablespoons per week to accommodate my womb's growing tenant. (Gotta drink lots and lots of water!)

We have an appointment today at 1:00 and we will see the heart beat! I have my video cassette all ready to go so we can record this madness to share with everyone!

**Love, Heather**