My Pregnancy This Week


Your baby's growing steadily, gaining about a quarter of a pound since last week, when she was just over a pound. Since she's almost a foot long, that makes for a pretty lean figure, but her body is filling out proportionally. Your baby's skin is thin, translucent, and wrinkled, her brain is growing rapidly, and her taste buds may be working now. Her lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" and cells that produce surfactant, a substance that helps the air sacs inflate easily.
Your baby can hear more and more now, and you may even notice her startle at loud, sudden noises. But she's probably getting used to the regular noises she hears around the house, such as your dog barking or the roar of a vacuum cleaner. Many new parents are surprised by how unfazed their newborns seem by sounds like these, but if you think about it, they've had months to get accustomed to them.