Fig 1: http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/fetaldevelopment/24weeks/
Baby size at 24 weeks: 30cm long.
Baby weight at 24 weeks: 600g+
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Had a tiring week this week. I’ve tried eating lots of fruit to up my sugar levels, but ended up with really bad heartburn! The woes of pregnancy eh?
I also had my first actual midwife appointment with my local midwife at Brentwood Community Hospital. I left feeling quite worried however. I’m ok now… but I clearly had a lot of explaining to do with regards to our journey from Week 1 – week 24 so far. So much has happened. We’ve had a complicated pregnancy… But the midwife just looked really concerned with everything I was telling her. Bringing the journey right up to date, I explained that we had another scan at UCLH on 18th to confirm or exclude Baby Boy’s suspected Talipes of his left foot. She looked really concerned and said “Why? Why are they doing another scan? That *never* happens?”. To which I was alarmed and explained that it’s probably because UCLH is a Research Hospital and they’re being thorough. But it did make me think, what if there was something else that was suspected during the last scan, but not explained to us? Are they not telling me something I should know?
After to speaking to many on Twitter, we’ve concluded she’s probably just a midwife that hasn’t come across notes like mine in her (short, so far) career…
HMMMM.
Baby boy has been especially active in the past few days. His favourite song this week is “Something” by The Beatles. His version of ‘classic’ 😉 He gets extremely bouncing when I join in singing, which is amazing. I love it so much!
So what is happening to baby boy this week?
The spine is becoming strong now and supports the rest of the body as it grows. Thanks to this growth spurt he is starting to fill your uterus and can’t stretch out to their full length any more.
His nostrils, which have been closed till now, open and his sense of taste is becoming more sensitive. Baby boy may even pull an expression of disgust if something you eat gives the amniotic fluid an unpleasant taste.
Your baby is now said to be “viable”, which means if they were born this week they would have roughly a 40% chance of survival.
Though your baby still has little body fat and his skin is thin and fragile, he’s well-proportioned. His brain is growing rapidly, tastebuds have fully developed, and his footprints and fingerprints are continuing to form. Inside his body, his lungs are developing branches of the respiratory tree as well as cells that produce surfactant. This substance will help him air sacs inflate once he reaches the outside world.
MM.
