You're more than halfway there! The top of your uterus now reaches your belly button and will grow about a centimetre per week. Your baby measures about 6.5 inches from crown to rump and is steadily gaining weight. A whitish coat of a slick, fatty substance called vernix caseosa begins to cover your baby and protects the skin during its long immersion in amniotic fluid. It also eases delivery. The baby's swallowing more this week, good practice for the digestive system. Hair on the scalp is sprouting.
Sensory development reaches its peak this week. The nerve cells serving each of the senses -- taste, smell, hearing, seeing, and touch -- are now developing in their specialised areas of the brain. Nerve cell production slows down as existing nerve cells grow larger and make more complex connections. If you're carrying a baby girl, she already has roughly six million eggs in her ovaries. By the time she's born, she'll have about one million.
You may have felt the kicking and somersaulting of your growing baby. At times, you might find that she is so mobile that you can't sleep. The next ten weeks or so will be your baby's busiest and most active time, until the womb gets too crowded.
No comments:
Post a Comment