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| MONTH 1-- DAY 28: The backbone and muscles are forming. Arms, legs, eyes and ears have begun to show. Heart begins to beat at 18-21 days after conception |
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| MONTH 2 -- WEEK 8: At a little more than an inch long, the developing life is now called a fetus--Latin for "young one" or "offspring." Everything is now present that will be found in a fully developed adult. |
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| MONTH 3 -- Week 12: The fetus now sleeps, awakens and exercises its muscles energetically--turning its head, curling its toes, and opening and closing its mouth. The palm, when stroked, will make a tight fist. The fetus breathes amniotic fluid to help develop its respiratory system. |
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| MONTH 4 -- Fine hair has begun to grow on the head. By the end of this month, the fetus is eight to ten inches in length and weighs a half pound or more. |
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| MONTH 5 -- Half the pregnancy has now passed, and the fetus is about 12 inches long. The mother has definitely begun to feel movement by now. If a sound is especially loud or startling, the fetus may jump in reaction to it. |
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| MONTH 6 -- Oil and sweat glands are functioning. The delicate skin of the growing baby is protected from the fetal waters by a special ointment called "vernix." If the baby were given the proper care, he would survive. |
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| Click heart to see the beating heart of a 9 week fetus. You will need Real One Player, you can get it HERE for free. |
| Click heart to see fetus at 7 weeks |
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| Seventh Month The baby now uses the four senses of vision, hearing, taste and touch. He can recognize his mother's voice. |
| Eighth Month The skin begins to thicken, with a layer of fat stored underneath for insulation and nourishment. Antibodies increasingly build up. The baby absorbs a gallon of amniotic fluid per day; the fluid is completely replaced every three hours. |
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| 5 Weeks-- The above picture shows the eye developing slowly in the child, lagging behind the brain, an appropriate sequence because a refined eye is useless without a refined brain to read and interpret messages it sends. The eye is one of the most prominent and easily identified early formations of the child. At five weeks a socket is formed. |
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| 6 Weeks-- In the above picture a rudimentary heart has already formed, as well as an early eye. Six weeks after fertilization, arms and legs are extremely short but starting to take shape. The red blob in the chest of the child, a tiny heart, now beating about 150 times a minute, twice as fast as the mother's. No bones have formed in the skull, so the early brain is easily seen above the eye. The child has its own blood supply separate from the mother's, but the placenta brings the two systems next to each other. This allows the mother to nourish the child and the child to dispose of waste products. |
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| 11 Weeks-- The above photo shows the child before 3 months have passed and the fingers are now quite visible. |
| Outside links to Fetal Development |
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| 13 weeks-- The fetus is now 3 to 4 inches long, crown to rump.. Its unique fingerprints are already in place. And when you poke your stomach gently and she feels it, your baby will start rooting(searching for a nipple). |
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