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Week 19: A creamy looking substance that covers
baby’s body, vernix coseosa, will start to form. This protects baby and its developing glands and sensory cells. If you’re having a baby girl primitive egg cells are now developed in ovaries, in fact females are born with all eggs their ovaries will ever have.
Week 20: Most of major development has now taken place, and danger zone of first three months is now over. Your baby will be waking and sleeping, just as newborns do. Also formation of fine scalp hair and eyebrows will begin.
Week 21: Your body is replacing amniotic fluid very three hours at this stage of your pregnancy. Baby’s leg and arm movements increase as muscles and bones become stronger. By end of week a stethoscope will be able to detect baby’s heart beat.
Week 22: If baby is a boy, testes will start to move from pelvic area into scrotum. The hair on head and eyebrows is now visible as white and short.
Week 23: The bones in middle ear start hardening making conduction of sound possible. The baby will start to gain some considerable weight between now and next month. The size of baby’s body will start to get into proportion though head will remain larger than rest of body.
Week 24: The skin of your baby is wrinkled, but will smooth out as fat is deposited. Also by end of this week baby’s heart beat is so strong it is some times possible to hear it by placing an ear on your stomach.
Week 25: Baby’s skin is now turning a reddish/pink as capillaries start to develop. The nostrils will now start to open, as they have been plugged unto now. The lungs will start developing blood vessels and finger and toe nails will now be covering half nail bed.
Week 26: with nostrils now open, muscular breathing will start. By end of week lungs will be secreting surfactant, a substance which prevents lung tissue sticking together. Also with formation of blood vessels in lungs, they will now also be developing air sacks. Brain wave activity starts this week for auditory and visual activity.
Week 27: Bumping and thumping is becoming stronger as your baby grows stronger, you should be feeling around 10 kicks in a two hour period. Baby’s lungs are growing rapidly and there is continual development with brain patterns.
Week 28: This is when eyelids un-fuse and open up. Muscle tone is improving, and lungs are capable of breathing air. The chances of a baby being born premature from now on, has a greatly improved chance of surviving.
Week 29: Eye lashes have now grown, and although still unable to focus, baby’s eyes are now sensitive to dark and light. At this stage of pregnancy senses of sound, smell and taste are developing. By end of week your baby will be able to move its eyes in their sockets.
Week 30: Baby is now storing up nutrients taken in by you. Calcium for skeletal development, protein for growth and iron for blood cells. By end of week languno (the small hairs that covered baby’s body), is nearly all gone apart from some patches on shoulders and back.
Week 31: As actual growth starts to slow down, internal organs are still maturing, so make sure your still getting enough folic acid, iron and calcium. Should your baby be born this week they would have ability to breath, see, listen learn and remember.
Week 32: The baby’s iris is now reacting to light. All five senses are now registering with your baby, although smell is limited as baby can’t breathe air in uterus.
Week 33: your baby may now be sucking its fingers. Constipation could be starting for you as your uterus puts more and more pressure on your bowels.
Week 34: The pigment of eyes is not quite fully developed yet, this leaves eyes looking blue regardless of final colour. And this week your baby will start to develop its own immune system.
Week 35: In baby boys decent of testes will complete any time now. Your baby may now shift into your pelvis in a head down position, but not all babies’ do this before birth.
Week 36: Dimples on elbows and knees will be forming as well as creases in neck area due to continual deposits of fat. Also this fat will help baby maintain its body temperature.
Week 37: Around 85% are born within two weeks of their actual due date (either before or after), so as you enter this stage be aware for signs of labour. The baby is practising being more aware of its surroundings; this is ‘orientating response’. This is where baby will turn towards any source of light. The end of this week marks end of development, growth will now slow down.
Week 38: Meconium is accumulating in intestines. Meconium is a dark green mass of waste product and cells from gall bladder, liver and pancreas. Although shortly after birth this will all come out.
Week 39: as baby is settling into your pelvis, you maybe feeling clumsy and off balance. This is because your centre of gravity shifts. Make sure you’re prepared for your trip to hospital.
Week 40: welcome to final week, that’s if you have not given birth already. Your body will be giving baby antibodies so it can protect its self from many diseases. The baby will finish dropping into its resting place before birth. So congratulations and welcome to your new born child.
Article by Beverley Brooke Visit www.pregnancy-weight-loss.com for more on pregnancy week by week
