The Fourth Month of Pregnancy
Your pregnancy: weeks 14-17. Your baby's individual features and sensory organs are now being fine tuned. Iron requirements increase during this period as the blood volume increases due to the building of the reserves of the foetus and placenta.
14 Weeks Pregnant
The tiny little one can now do a number of amazing things.
The baby’s expressions are almost visible now. Facial muscles and brain impulses are developed enough to enable it to squint, frown, grimace and even grasp. You may notice this when you have your ultrasound, where your baby may appear to suck its thumb. Your baby produces urine from its kidneys, expelling it into the amniotic fluid. From head to bottom, your baby now measures around 9 centimetres. The arms are growing longer to be more proportionate to the body, which is covered in a soft downy hair called lanugo. The limbs now become more flexible and active. The liver starts making bile now and the spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells.
15 Weeks Pregnant
Your baby can now sense light.
Your baby now measures around 11.5cm and weighs about 85 grams. Lung sacs now start to develop, legs start growing, and the baby can now move its limbs. Taste buds, though formed, are not of much use to the baby at this stage.
16 Weeks Pregnant
Your baby is getting ready for a phase of rapid growth.
Right now around 12 centimetres long, your baby is about to experience a growth spurt over the next few weeks. The legs and head are more developed and the eyes and ears look more like how they will look eventually. It can also sense light and move away from it. The heart is now pumping greater volumes of blood than before and the amount is expected to increase in the coming weeks. Your baby is also developing reflexes. If you prod your abdomen at this stage, your baby may actually squirm in response!
17 Weeks Pregnant
Your baby can now move its bone joints.
Your baby’s little skeleton is now changing from soft cartilage to bone and the umbilical cord is growing stronger and thicker. It can move its joints. Weighing a little more than 140 grams, your baby is around 12-13cm long. At this stage the sweat glands also begin to develop.
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