The fetus is now fully formed, from tooth buds to toenails, and your baby's job now is to continue getting larger and stronger for the rest of your pregnancy.

With the most critical development behind the fetus, the chance of miscarriage drops considerably after this week.

At only 12 weeks old your baby is already silently crying inside you. By now his vocal chords are complete. Your baby can now even suck his thumb! The brain is fully formed, and your child can feel pain. But don't worry - he is as comfortable as a bug in a rug inside you.



Other significant developments include:

• Those precious eyes begin to move closer together

• Ears shift to their normal place on the side of the head

• Intestines move farther in to your child's body

• His or her liver begins to function - Responsible for cleansing the blood, storing nutrients, and providing needed chemicals, this is an important event!

• The pancreas begins to produce insulin

• Guess what? Your baby's average size is now at a whopping length: 2.13 inches (5.4cm) and weight: 0.49 ounce (14gm)

Starting with this week, the baby is now called a fetus. The most critical part of the baby's development is over. This is a period of rapid growth. The baby's head is about half its length. The eyelids will fuse shut, and the irises will begin to develop. Sometime during this week or the next week, blood will begin to circulate between the baby and uterus and the placenta starts to function.

Your fetus, about the size of a large lime, measures about 1.75 to 2.4 inches from crown to rump and weighs about three-tenths of an ounce. About now the rapid "swooshing" noises of the heartbeat can be heard through a Doppler sound-wave stethoscope. Fingernails and external genitalia are showing distinguishing characteristics, and the baby is swallowing and kicking, although you still won't feel it.

Note: Changes were made to this post on 11/21/2005

Here is the current list of possible names for the baby. Because I am a gentleman we'll start with the ladies.

Daddy's Little girls:
(First, Middle, Last)
Claire Elizabeth Marseglia
Sophia Marie Marseglia
Grace Elizabeth Marseglia
Maggie Elizabeth Marseglia
Caroline Elizabeth Marseglia

Momma's boys:
(First, Middle, Last)
Lucas Knight Marseglia (Luke)
Jackson Knight Marseglia (Jack)
Michael Stephen Marseglia
Matthew Stephen Marseglia
Alexander Knight Marseglia (Alex)

I'm thinking we should go into the actual birth with two names for whatever sex the baby is. So we can see what the baby looks like before we give him/her their permanent name. We are completely open to people voicing their opinions on the names they like (or dislike) the most. It's always good to hear it from another angle outside of my foolishness and Kate's stubbornness.

By now, your baby's vital organs have a solid foundation.

The embryonic tail has disappeared completely, and your baby has fully separated fingers and toes. The bones of your baby's skeleton begin to form.

This week, your baby's brain will produce almost 250,000 new neurons every minute.

Your baby's eyelids are no longer transparent. The outer ears are starting to assume their final form, and tooth buds are forming as well. If your baby is a boy, his testes will start producing the male hormone testosterone.

Your baby is approximately 2 inches long, about the size of a lime, and weighs about a quarter of an ounce.

Your baby’s head makes up half the length of his/her body. There is a bulge in the forehead, which allows for continued brain development and maturity. Eventually the forehead will recede, giving your baby a more human appearance. Fingernails, toenails, and hair will begin to become visible during this week of development. The baby’s fingers are no longer webbed and his/her arms bend at the elbows. The baby is very active as he/she swallows amniotic fluid and kicks their legs.

It may be encouraging to know that your baby has completed the most important and critical part of their development by week 10. The vast majority of congenital deformities occur by the end of week 10.

Check out Baby Big Head's 1st Ultrasound Pics here.

The ultrasound has become a standard procedure used during pregnancy. It can demonstrate fetal growth and can detect increasing numbers of conditions including meningomyelocele, congenital heart disease, kidney abnormalities, hydrocephalus, anencephaly, club feet, and other deformities. Ultrasound does not produce ionizing radiation and is considered a very safe procedure for both the mother and the fetus. [Source]

Katie had her first ultrasound on November 7th. Click here to read all about it and see the images.

Sometime in the last few days, the first detectable brain waves went coursing through your baby's head. What kind of thoughts might she be thinking? She's nearing an inch in length, about a big as your pinky toe.

Boy or girl? The answer to pregnancy's biggest question was actually settled seven weeks ago, at the moment the egg was fertilized when the sperm contributed either a Y chromosome, which would create a boy, or an X chromosome, which makes a girl. But until this point in its development, the embryo has had no outward signs of gender. This week, the gonads, or reproductive glands, come into being. They are the tiny beginnings of either testes or ovaries.

But don't rush to get your ultrasound just yet- those tiny sex organs won't be visible for another six to eight weeks.The baby's muscles are growing and getting stronger, and its movements are increasing. Elbows, knees, and other limb joints are distinguishable. Any day now, toenails will appear at the tips of budding toes.

Your baby is growing -- he's now a tiny bundle about the size of a lima bean. He is well-cushioned in his uterine home, afloat in the clear "waters" of the ever-growing amniotic sac. Here, he can drift around freely, while still remaining attached to the placenta by the bungee-like umbilical cord. The placenta is busy processing nutrients from your bloodstream to nourish the embryo, while also disposing of waste produced by him.

At this point, the embryo's entire body is beginning to uncurl a bit, but its head is still very large in proportion to the rest of it. This will also be true after birth: a newborn's head makes up about a quarter of its length, while an adult's is only an eighth.

The esophagus, which brings food to the stomach, forms this week, and on either side of it, two buds that are the beginning of lungs. Imagine: it will be eight months until those lungs gulp their first breath of air.