Week 10: Your pregnancy
Your baby's growth: Brain
This week your baby's brain will experience enormous growth, producing up to 250,000 new cells every minute. The rest of her body is growing too; she's now about the size of a small plum and weighs about half an ounce.
This week marks your baby's last week as an embryo; next week she'll officially become a fetus.
But this week there's still a lot of activity going on:
- Teeth. Tooth buds for baby teeth will begin forming inside the mouth.
- Reproductive organs and external genitals. They will be formed, although it will still be too early to determine gender.
- Nervous system. This will continue to develop.
- Internal organs. Many of the internal organs will begin to function.
- Intestines. They have been developing inside the umbilical cord and have begun moving into the abdominal cavity.
- Taste buds. They will begin to appear on the surface of the tiny tongue.
- Eyelids. They’re almost closed over the tiny eyes, which have already developed some of the color they'll have at birth.
- Upper lip will form completely.
- Joints. Most of the joints will form, including elbows, wrists, knees, shoulders, and ankles.
Birth defect risk reduced
At this point you can relax a bit, because any abnormalities that could develop in your baby are much less likely to occur after the 10th week. Of course you'll still want to make healthy lifestyle choices—avoiding drugs, X-rays, alcohol, cigarettes, and toxins that could harm your baby's developing cells.
What’s happening with you
- You’re still in regular clothes. Despite your baby's growth spurt, you can probably still wear your regular clothes. Very little of your total pregnancy weight gain—usually between 25 to 35 pounds for a single baby—occurs during the first three months.
- Fatigue and nausea. If you're still feeling tired and a little sick, try to focus on the fact that in just a few more weeks, you'll probably be feeling a lot better!
