Amazing stages of pregnancy Watching your baby grow from the very smallest of beings into someone that you can touch and hold is an amazing journey and one that is very much a part of many mother's lives today more than ever. Both mothers and fathers can explore and understand what is happening during the pregnancy by understanding what happens at the various stages of pregnancy. While each baby will develop at his own pace, the sequence of events is about the same in most healthy children. What's more, you will know your child is developing well by the various tests that your doctor will run during your pregnancy.
Here are some of the stages of pregnancy that you will go through over the course of these 40 weeks. Remember too that the 40 weeks begins the day after your last menstrual cycle, which is usually two weeks prior to when conception happens.
One Month During this first month, your baby is a small embryo that is nothing more than two layers of cells. Those layers of cells are microscopic and will soon develop into every organ and body par that makes up your child's body. These cells are in a pancake shaped layer. Your placenta is beginning to form as is the amniotic sac which will hold your baby throughout your pregnancy.
At Six Weeks By six weeks, everything has changed. The placenta has formed as has the yolk sac. The umbilical cord is feeding your child through its connection to you. At this time, your baby's hear it beating, and fast. Most babies’ hearts will beat at least twice as fast as mom's during this time. The heart is also beginning its division into the right and left chambers. In your ultrasound here, you may see an eye spot, the lower jaw forming, an arm and leg bud forming and even a small tail. The baby has very small hands already and will begin moving their hands at this time. Inside the baby's mouth you will find his tongue developing as well as vocal cords, although they are just starting to develop now.
Nine Weeks At nine weeks, you are beginning to gain weight as your baby grows and the placenta grows with your child. At nine weeks, the very tips of your baby's fingers are developing. They will look enlarged for some time as their touch pads develop so that they can learn to feel. The webbing that held his fingers together is now going away as the fingers develop on their own, now. Your baby has all of his limbs at nine weeks and is moving them, too. All of his larger joints are working too. This means that his elbows, wrists, ankles, knees and shoulders are all bending and moving. The baby's eyes are developing rapidly. His eyelids will remain fused shut though until later stages of pregnancy. You may notice in an ultrasound that the baby now has earlobes, too.
20 Weeks By the time that your baby reaches twenty weeks old, you are most definitely showing from your abdomen. That's because your child is growing rapidly. By now, he has gone from just a few cells into a recognizable baby form, yet he has quite a bit more growing to do. During this time, many women are experiencing the first comfortable moments of pregnancy as the first three months are well gone and you feel stronger and hopefully morning sickness has past. At this stage of pregnancy, your baby's bowel is forming. Here, something called meconium is accumulating. This is a combination of waste products from the baby including digestive secretions, sloughed cells and amniotic fluid that the baby has taken in. Not to worry, though, as this will most definitely be the first surprised in your baby's first diaper.
At twenty weeks, your body's uterus is at your belly button, moving up considerably from where it was just a few weeks prior. Your baby's body is now coated with vernix caseosa, which is a greasy substance that is white in color. This product will protect the baby's skin during the entire time that it is submersed in the amniotic fluid. When your baby is born , this will be gone and the child's skin will look normal, in most cases.
37 Weeks Moving through the stages of pregnancy, you will come to the time when your child is nearly all complete in his growing process prior to being born. In your final trimester, you will feel tired more often and you will feel anxious about having the pregnancy end. These are normal feelings. Some women are more than ready to give birth by 37 weeks, while others will have several additional weeks to wait. Your doctor gave you a due date way back when you first met with him. But, your due date can be wrong considerably. Most women will deliver their babies within a timeframe of two weeks prior to two weeks after the due date given to them.
At 37 weeks, your baby has nearly fully developed and should be head down in the uterus, waiting and ready to be born. Many women have Braxton Hicks, which are false contractions. At this time, they are usually more uncomfortable than ever and may even last longer. Your baby will probably have a full head of hair by 37 weeks, too. It may be up to 1 ½ inches in length, too. This varies from one baby to the next, though.
During the stages of pregnancy, your baby is growing and developing, and your body is changing day by day. It may seem that time flies by, though. As you meet with your doctor to talk about the baby's development and your health, do ask him what is happening with your child's developmental stages. He is likely to allow you to hear his heart beat and to schedule various ultrasounds so that you can see your child growing long before he is born. For many, the stage of pregnancy will happen just like this, but for most, there will be changes that your doctor can help you to understand. |
