Baby, baby, baby, yeah

July 27, 2003 12:40 PM

The Visible Embryo. "This spiral represents the 23 stages occurring in the first trimester of pregnancy and every two weeks of the second and third trimesters. Use the spiral to navigate through the 40 weeks of pregnancy and preview the unique changes in each stage of human development." via The Eyes Have It, which sadly looks as if it hasn't been updated since February, but still has much of interest to offer.
posted by jokeefe (13 comments total)

Whoops! I take it back. Current edition of The Eyes Have It is here.
posted by jokeefe at 12:47 PM on July 27, 2003

Arrggghhh. Let's try that again. The proper link for The Eyes Have It is here. My apologies; I'm kinda sleep deprived.
posted by jokeefe at 1:04 PM on July 27, 2003

wow. so we are crazy sci-fi aliens who just happen to be from this planet. that's quite awesome. thanks jokeefe.
posted by folktrash at 1:52 PM on July 27, 2003

Thanks for that, jokeefe. This baby stuff is the hot topic at my house. It's been done, I tried to tell her. I was a bit confused by the change of scale after the first trimester, where stages and not weeks are on the spiral, so here is what I think should have been on the page:

1st trimester: blue (the numbers on the colored spiral represent stages; weeks are small numbers on gray line)

2nd trimester: green (numbers represent weeks)

1st trimester: purple (numbers represent weeks)
posted by planetkyoto at 6:00 PM on July 27, 2003

is it just me and my browser or are there no photos after it goes into the green...?
posted by t r a c y at 6:08 PM on July 27, 2003

is it just me and my browser or are there no photos after it goes into the green...?

Same thing here.

Also, when, except pregnancy, does 40 weeks = 9 months. This was something I got quite cranky about when I was preggers.
posted by dejah420 at 7:15 PM on July 27, 2003

Wonderful graph. The only problem is that their whole site suffers from targetequalsnewsitis, a strange illness that usually affects management, making them force the web designers and programmers to open new browser windows for every link, in the vain hope the visitor will never leave their site...
posted by nkyad at 7:42 PM on July 27, 2003

is it just me and my browser or are there no photos after it goes into the green...?

Same thing here.

Yes, you are right, and I should have noted it in the FPP, perhaps.
posted by jokeefe at 9:28 PM on July 27, 2003

[this is good]
posted by plep at 10:51 PM on July 27, 2003

[this is good]
posted by dg at 11:00 PM on July 27, 2003

I remember checking this out when I was pregnant.

Even cooler is the chronological set of actual pickled embryos, fetuses, and babies at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry that I saw on a recent visit.

Of course, someone always has to make the crack in the line in front of the cases, "They should make people come look at this before they get an abortion".
posted by beth at 11:25 PM on July 27, 2003

dejah420 spake: Also, when, except pregnancy, does 40 weeks = 9 months. This was something I got quite cranky about when I was preggers.

Nine calendar months, but ten lunar (28-day) months. Since a "typical" calendar month is 4.4 weeks, nine calendar months works out to 39.6 weeks -- or just shy of ten lunar months/40 weeks.
posted by wdpeck at 3:32 AM on July 28, 2003

Nine calendar months, but ten lunar (28-day) months. Since a "typical" calendar month is 4.4 weeks, nine calendar months works out to 39.6 weeks -- or just shy of ten lunar months/40 weeks.

Yes, yes...so they kept telling me. But when you're keeping track of things by week...and you've ballooned up like someone snuck helium into your undies...week 40 sure feels like 10 months. ;)
posted by dejah420 at 9:57 AM on July 28, 2003