Baby's first picture

Look at that cute little profile!

We had our first ultrasound today. I am 13 weeks along, and everything is going great. The ultrasound showed no abnormalities; everything looked normal at this stage, including the down's syndrome measurements, which means we probably won't be doing additional screening for down's syndrome. The heartbeat sounded great and was normal. And, it looks like this might be a boy, but it's a little too early to know for sure.










The amount of development that occurs in the first trimester is truly amazing. Essentially, almost all of the development occurs in the first trimester, and the second two are mostly just to let the baby get bigger. All the major organs are formed now; the brain structure is the same as it will be at birth; there are 10 fingers and 10 toes (hopefully), complete with fingernails (either this week or next); the kidneys are producing urine, which is now being released via the umbilical cord and amniotic fluid (which replaces itself every THREE hours!); the bones have started to ossify, i.e. become actual bones; the olfactory sense has begun to develop; the eye color has developed; and more, but I can't remember everything. Troutface is about 2.5 inches tall now.










Troutface was pretty active during the ultrasound, kicking quite a bit -- not that I can feel it yet, because there's no power behind those kicks yet, but we could see it. In this last picture, the thing coming out of the face that looks like a beak is a hand; and it shows four fingers and a thumb. Yay!