Your Baby at 10 Weeks Pregnant - This week is an exciting milestone in your baby's development. At 10 weeks pregnant, your baby will no longer be considered an embryo. Your baby is now officially a fetus! Your baby measures between 31 mm (1.22 inches) to 42 mm (1.65 inches) from crown to rump – about the length of a key lime. In the next few weeks, your baby's length will grow exponentially. Your baby will undergo the most rapid growth in the fetal period, and he or she is now at lower risk for congenital malformations (physical birth defects).
How your baby's growing:
This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature. Your baby is now swallowing and kicking, and all her major organs are fully developed. More minute details are appearing too, such as fingernails and a little fuzz of hair on her head. Vital organs — including his kidneys, intestines, brain, and liver (now making red blood cells in place of the disappearing yolk sac) — are in place and starting to function, though they'll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy.
Bones and cartilage are forming and small indentations on the legs are developing into knees and ankles. For the first time in your baby's development, your baby's fingers and toes are separated (no longer webbed). Nails are beginning to form on your little one's digits. Your baby has the ability to bend his or her arms and legs. Your baby's sex organs are beginning to show. At your dating scan, which should happen soon, you may be able to tell whether you're going to have a boy or a girl.
Your baby's skin is very translucent now, and some babies start to develop tiny fuzz along their skin. Many moms-to-be refer this as "peach fuzz" or "baby fuzz." This soft fuzz protects your baby's skin. The outline of his spine is clearly visible through translucent skin, and spinal nerves are beginning to stretch out from his spinal cord.
This week, your baby is having fun swimming in your uterus, sheltered from harm within the amniotic sac. Around 10 weeks pregnant, your baby can now swallow amniotic fluid and its life-sustaining organs (think heart, brain, liver, kidneys, intestines) are beginning to work. This helps prepare your baby for breathing later in life. Amniotic fluid will help the digestive and respiratory systems of your baby develop. Other systems are a go, too. Your baby's stomach is producing digestive juices, the kidneys are producing larger quantities of urine and, if your baby's a boy, he's already producing testosterone (how manly!).
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