With bones and cartilage starting to form and vital organs beginning to function, baby is making major progress. Body length will almost double in the next three weeks, and arm joints are now working. (Soon, legs will start working too.)
They are nearly an inch and a half long and the size of a prune, but not nearly as shriveled (even with all the time it spends in water). In fact, the babies are really taking a human shape now. Bones and cartilage are forming, and small indentations on the legs are developing into knees and ankles. The arms (complete with elbows) can flex already. Though the baby's arms are taking shape and getting stronger, each one is only about the size of this number 1. The tooth bud fairy is making her appearance this week, heralding the arrival of the twins first little choppers, which are forming under the gums. Other systems are go, too. Their stomach is producing digestive juices, the kidneys are producing larger quantities of urine, and, if they are boys, or if one of them are a boy, he's already producing testosterone.
Ultrasound pictures will be posted tomorrow!
The most dramatic development this week: reflexes. The twins fingers will soon begin to open and close, thier toes will curl, thier eye muscles will clench, and thier mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, the babies will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. Their intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into their abdominal cavity about now, and thier kidneys will begin excreting urine into thier bladder.Meanwhile, nerve cells are multiplying rapidly, and in the babies brain, synapses are forming furiously. Their face looks unquestionably human: their eyes have moved from the sides to the front of thier head, and thier ears are right where they should be. From crown to rump, the babies are just over 2 inches long and weighs half an ounce.
Slightly more than two inches long now and weighing about a third of an ounce,the twins are growing by leaps and bounds. And so are their heads, which is equal in length to the rest of the body. On the crown of that large head (and over the rest of the body), hair follicles are forming. Fingernail and toenail beds begin to develop this week and by next week, the nails themselves will start to grow. Your baby's body is straightening and his or her torso is lengthening. Other poses the babies can assume now: stretches, somersaults, and forward rolls. And while you can't tell this baby's gender by its cover yet, testes are developing if it's a boy and ovaries if it's a girl.
