I get an NHS newsletter every so often, but today's was interesting, so I thought I'd share the 'How your baby is growing' bit, as it's a bit less premature birth obsessed than the BBC one! My comments are in [ ]s.
"The baby is now moving about vigorously and responds to touch and sound . A very loud noise close by may make it jump and kick[don't I bloody know it!]. It is also swallowing small amounts of the amniotic fluid in which it is floating and passing tiny amounts of urine back into the fluid. Sometimes the baby may get hiccups and you can feel the jerk of each hiccup [not yet, but I think it's impending!].
The baby may also begin to follow a pattern for waking and sleeping. Very often this is a different pattern from yours, so when you go to bed at night, the baby wakes up and starts kicking [Oh yes, he wakes up first thing, then snoozes until lunch time, wakes up again, snoozes all afternoon then plays football with my innards all evening and night!]. The baby’s heartbeat can now be heard through a stethoscope. Your partner may even be able to hear it by putting an ear to your abdomen, but it can be difficult to find the right place [Oooooooooh Al, can we try this?].
The baby is now covered in a white, greasy substance called ‘vernix’. It is thought this may protect the baby’s skin as it floats in the amniotic fluid. The vernix mostly disappears before the birth.
At around 26 weeks the baby’s eyelids open for the first time. The eyes are almost always blue or dark blue although some babies do have brown eyes at birth. It is not until some weeks after birth that your baby's eyes become the colour they will stay.
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