Update on 9 Weeks

Babycenter.com: "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."

Babiesonline.com: "This is your last week of the embryonic period. Your placenta is developing well and your baby looks like a human now - albeit a tiny human.

While the internal reproductive organs have now become either testes for boys or ovaries for girls, there's nothing yet to tell you whether it's a boy or girl even if you look closely. The skeleton has begun to form as cartilage and bones take shape. The baby's intestine has begun to move out of the umbilical cord into the baby's abdomen and your baby is now taking his first few drinks - he's drinking amniotic fluid. Reflex muscle movements continue and now your baby will move away if touched through the uterine wall. Other changes in your baby are the heart valve formation, the retina formation, and the tip of the nose becoming visible."

I'm feeling more worn out than ever, nauseated more often, and even experiencing the morning sickness. I'm discovering that an empty stomach is a very very bad thing to have, but it's hard to eat when you feel nauseated! It's a cycle that I've read will get easier in the second trimester (here's hoping!).