25 weeks pregnant

Size: 13 1/2 in.

Weight: 1 1/2 lbs.


"Sometimes I lie with my head towards the bottom, sometimes towards the top and sometimes I sleep nicely stretched out on my back. I love to sleep"



Your Pregnancy: Week 25
At this point you're pretty much swollen all over. What started as just a "boob thing" seems to have spread from there, down your torso and out your limbs. This is definitely contagious. But even if sausage fingers and toes aren't your idea of womanly, remember that you are indeed a reproductive goddess. (You could try asking your friends to bow before you as you enter the room, but you'll probably have to settle for peeling your own grapes.)
Your Body
Pregnancy leg cramps are not your ordinary run-of-the-mill leg cramps. Nope, a pregnancy leg cramp will often have you leaping out of bed screaming at the top of your lungs.

Leg cramps can be caused by a calcium deficiency, so be sure to get enough calcium.

Your Baby
Get ready for pat-a-cake! Baby's hands are now fully developed and he spends most of his awake time groping around in the darkness of your uterus. Brain and nerve endings are developed enough now so that your baby can feel the sensation of touch. That doesn't mean he can feel it when his father pokes your stomach, however, so tell him to knock it off. Other highlights include:

Your baby's arms and legs have grown to almost the proportions they will be at birth, which is still sort of short. So don't be alarmed when your newborn's arms barely clear his waist. Baby's nostrils, which have been plugged up until now, clear out (like he's taken a super-dose of Sudafed) and he can practice breathing through the nose. The structures of your baby's spine are now made up of 150 joints, 33 rings and some 1,000 ligaments. Can you believe you're growing something that complicated inside of you?

The capillaries, the teeniest blood vessels, are now forming in your baby's body, giving his formerly translucent skin a pink glow. The blood vessels in the lungs also develop this week. You'll see how well that worked out when your baby gives those lungs a workout while you're on line at the bank in a few months.

Your baby weighs about a pound and a half and is about 13½ inches long.

Your uterus has grown quite a bit bigger this week. The top of your uterus is between your bellybutton and your sternum. Your uterus is about the size of a soccer ball now!

If your baby is delivered at this time, it would have a good chance of surviving. It is best for your baby to remain inside of you for the remainder of the pregnancy, but great advances have been made in the care of a premature baby. Ventilators, monitors and medications all help premature babies develop and grow outside of the womb. If your baby were born this early, he would probably have to spend several months in the hospital and would be more susceptible to infections and other complications.

You can hear your baby's heartbeat with both a Doppler and a stethoscope at this time, and your partner may even be able to hear the heartbeat unaided if he puts his ear in the right position. Sex differentiation is being completed now. If you are expecting a baby boy, the testes start to descend into the scrotum. In baby girls, the vagina is hollowing out. Your baby is able to do more with their fingers now and can move his fingers to make a complete fist. As your baby becomes more dexterous, he will be able to touch and hold his feet. Babies also begin to prefer their left hand or right hand at this time. Because babies settle into routines of sleep and activity, you might begin to notice these patterns as well. Some women experience the most fetal movements while they are trying to rest.