Week 8

My Baby This Week

By this time, your baby would be about 1.6 cm in length. That’s about the size of a Mentos sweet! His “tail” will start to disappear, arms, fingers and toes will start lengthening and eyelids would have formed over most of her eye. His fingers would still be webbed. Breathing tubes would also start connecting from throat to the branches of his lungs.

His brain is also developing quickly, with nerves starting to connect to one another. These will become the “neural pathways” in his brain.

What’s Happening To My Body?

Your clothes would definitely be much tighter than before at this stage. You should make your first prenatal visit to the gynecologist by this week. This would be especially important for those who’ve had a history of pregnancy complications such as miscarriages. Also, if you’re older than 35, it would be advisable to start seeing the gynecologist sooner than later.

Your gynecologist may be able to show you ultrasound scans of your baby even at this early stage. Ask for a printout if possible, so you can put them in an album for memories sake! The printout won’t show much, so don’t be disappointed. But you will be able to see a rough outline of the embryo if you look carefully.

Some gynecologists have equipment to conduct ultra sound scans by inserting a scanning device through your cervix. Although this is a little uncomfortable, these scans produce clearer pictures of your baby that are more recognizable than those produced by the more common above-abdomen type scans. To your untrained eye, this can make a lot of difference!