This week is the classic date we could usually determine whether our little one is going to pee standing up or sitting down (but ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’ would rather keep it a surprise!). Other milestones and developments this week are:
- Our nearly four-inch long gymnast is happily mobile inside my womb, and this week I may notice a point when my sneezing, coughing or laughing results in a little kick here or a poke there. I may begin to feel movement this week because our baby’s bones harden.
- Pudding’s legs are now longer than arms, and his/her little elbows and knees are bending more freely this week. He/She is moving those arms and legs frequently, especially since there’s still lots of room to move within the uterus.
- Pudding can also grasp, squint, frown, grimace and suck his/her thumb!
- Fingernails and toenails are growing too. In fact, some babies need their nails clipped right after birth!
- Many of Pudding’s major organ systems are increasing in capacity—particularly that amazing tiny heart and complex circulation system, which is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood per day, and will increase to a very impressive 200 quarts per day by the end of the pregnancy.
- As far as hair goes, some new scalp patterns beginning to develop on our little one’s head, although actual head hair is not yet present.
- The three tiny bones in Pudding’s middle ear have begun to harden. The auditory centres in our baby’s brain haven’t developed yet, so he/she might not really understand what we say but his/her hearing capacity is in the process of developing.
- All this, and our little one is an amazing 3.98 inches (10.1cm) long and may weigh 2.47 ounces (70gm).
Pregnancy is getting company inside one’s skin.
~Maggie Scarf
