growing baby

So, the little vaguely-baby-shaped blob that you see in there is our embryo! As Linda mentioned, today was our last scheduled visit to Reproductive Partners, and the picture above is the result.

Before anyone has any illusions otherwise, the picture is actually to-scale on my screen: the entire embryo is 18 millimeters right now, “head” to “toe”. There was definitely a lot more observable now since two weeks ago — for one, Linda could see the heartbeat quite well this time. Plus there’s a clear head, and some appendages: if the ultrasound resolution was higher, we’d be able to see that the fingers aren’t separated quite yet and the hands are still webbed.

As we were leaving the office, a nurse printed a couple of copies of the snapshot that you see above, and pointed out that the black spot near the “head” is a place where the brain will go! Apparently it kind of grows into the space left for it! I found this completely fascinating.

Also, somehow my dad wasn’t aware of this blog’s active existence! Oops! Anyway, problem fixed.

Linda’s got an ob/gyn appointment on Thursday (supposedly to scope out the doctor and see if she likes her, but most likely just to choose the doctor for good). You’ll likely hear from her when she gets back from that visit.