Up to 30 weeks
Your baby’s now so big that when your or midwife examines you, they can check position and the way he’s lying. This is the month he can do a somersault.
Your Baby’s Progress
Great changes take place in your baby’s nervous system this month. His brain grows larger (to fit inside the skull it has to fold over and wrinkle up until it looks like a walnut), and his brain cells and nerve circuits are all fully linked and active.
Also, a protective fatty sheath begins to form around his nerve fibers, just as a similar sheath formed earlier around his spinal cord. This fatty sheath keeps developing until early adulthood. Thanks to this, nerve impulses can travel fasten and your baby is now able to cope with more complex type of learning and movement.
Your baby starts getting ready for birth. (If he were to be born prematurely at tlais stage, he’d have an excellent chance of survival. Even though he might have some breathing problems and difficulty in keeping himself warm, modern care facilities would help him thrive.) He’s beginning to gain some fat underneath his skin, which starts to smooth out, lose its wrinkles, and look more rounded. His coat of hairy lanugo may reduce to just a patch on his back and shoulders. The membranes that sealed and protected his eyes while they were growing will have fulfilled their function by the beginning of this month. His eyes are now fully formed and his eyelids have separated, allowing his eyes to open. He continues to develop the swallowing and sucking skills he’ll need as soon as he’s born.
His breathing - By now he’s developed his mature breathing rhythm, and the air sacs in his lungs start to get ready for the first breath he’ll take in the world outside your womb. The air sacs line themselves with a coating of special cells and a fluid (surfactant) that will prevent them from collapsing.
His movements - He’ll find he has less room to move around and may move less. He’ll wriggle uncomfortably if you’re in a position that doesn’t feel good to him.
Orientation - During his weeks of “gymnastics practice,” your baby has done more than increase his muscle tone-he’s developed the ability to position himself in space. He’ll probably continue to lie with his head upward during this month, although if he’s maturing fast he may turn upside down and settle into place for delivery (engage) earlier than usual. This is more common in first babies. Babies can continue turning up to 36 weeks.
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