Like last week, much of this week has been filled with unbuttoned jeans (reminder-- I work from home so it's cool!) to accommodate my ever thickening waistline. One day, though, I had to put on professional clothes as I had an on-site meeting with one of our clients. I made the mistake of wearing a slightly fitted shirt that had to be tucked in and pants with a fairly defined waist. While I certainly looked fine, I was pretty uncomfortable most of the day and was very excited to get home and change into something a bit more forgiving. I'm not exactly at the stage where I need to be wearing maternity clothes, but this weekend I am going to head to the store and try some bigger sizes. I'm also going to look into picking up a "belly band" which is essentially a wide piece of stretchy fabric that you wear over unbuttoned pants. It helps conceal the fact that your pants are unbuttoned and it also helps hold your pants up (clearly you can't wear anything tucked in when you have it on, though).
On to the baby's development...
The most dramatic development this week: reflexes. Your baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, his toes will curl, his eye muscles will clench, and his mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. His intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into his abdominal cavity about now, and his kidneys will begin excreting urine into his bladder.
Meanwhile, nerve cells are multiplying rapidly, and in your baby's brain, synapses are forming furiously. His face looks unquestionably human: His eyes have moved from the sides to the front of his head, and his ears are right where they should be. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over 2 inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.
At this point the fetus is actually starting to look pretty baby-like. Check out this picture (note: this is an "inside the body" type of drawing, so don't click if that sort of thing bothers you): http://www.babycenter.com/fetal-development-images-12-weeks
Week 12 began on Valentine's Day! Here is the weekly photo:
