Your baby's crown-to-rump length is 5.2 to 6 inches this week. Your baby weighs approximately 7 ounces and will increase its weight more than 15 times between now and birth!
Most women can feel their uterus about a half of an inch below their bellybutton at this point of pregnancy. If you turn to the side, you can really tell that your body is changing! Most women have gained up to 14 pounds now and only 7 ounces of that is your baby! The placenta weighs about 6 ounces and the amniotic fluid that surrounds your baby weighs 11 ounces. Your breasts have increased in weight by 6 ounces each and the uterus has grown to 11 ounces! You may be gaining weight in places other than your abdomen and this may be affecting your posture and sleeping habits.
One of the most amazing aspects of your baby's growth and development is that of the fetal brain. Your baby's brain is one of the first organs to appear. Your baby's oversized head shows the brain's importance in his development. Because the nerves that connect the muscles to the brain have grown into place, your baby's movements are consciously directed. Your baby's ears stand out from the sides of the head and the buds for your baby's permanent teeth appear. Your baby's arms and legs have reached their relative proportions and his feet are approximately one inch long.
Your baby's sensory development is exploding! Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, taking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you.
kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on her scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on her skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid.
The Baby
Your little heir is becoming stronger and stronger -- you might even feel him moving this week-- a wondrous moment! Then again, it may take a couple more weeks before you feel movement, or if you are pregnant for the second or third time, then you may have felt it a few weeks ago. After all, you know what to look for.
He is now about 8 inches (20 centimeters) long already and he weighs 7 ounces (200 grams), just like a small babydoll.
The sense of touch has already developed so that you can make contact with your child. You do that by rubbing all over your tummy and from time to time pushing firmly on your abdomen (obviously not hard enough to hurt yourself. You can't hurt the baby). Your baby feels this and he will start responding to it, perhaps even kicking or punching that spot.
Filled with many emotions and excitement you wait for the subsequent thump. That waiting can last a long time, however, because sometimes a week goes by before he communicates again. But also sometimes it happens the next day and there is that amazing and awesome feeling again: I'm really having a baby. I feel him!
If you are impatient and you want to feel him - again - try it around midnight, because that's when he is most active. Pull your knees up and lie on your back, and put your hands on your uterus. Lightly push on your lower abdomen and just wait. Because you are pushing in on the uterus, there's a better chance of the baby touching the wall. Don't forget that your baby is still swimming in an enormous bubble of amniotic fluid and he is still very small so he doesn't touch the edge very often normally. The bigger and longer he becomes the more you will feel him. In the beginning it seems like the flutter of a butterfly but pretty soon it feels like he is playing soccer. But whatever it feels like it is still unique and lovely, so lovely...
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