How Big Is My Baby at 18 Weeks Pregnant
Noticing a rumbling in your tummy?
Information technology could be pregnancy hunger pangs — or it could exist the very first signs of fetal movement, which can happen at effectually week eighteen of pregnancy.
Your Baby at Week 18
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At xviii weeks, your trivial chick is about the aforementioned size as that chicken breast on your dinner plate — about 5 inches long and v ounces in weight.
But don't let his modest size fool you — there are big goings-on in that little body of his this week. Meconium — your baby'south first poop — is slowly starting to accumulate in his bowels. If your baby's a male child, his prostate gland is forming. And both girl and boy babies now officially sport finger and toe prints. Those tiny swirls and wrinkles mark your babe as uniquely himself from hither on out… though there's probably footling need to tell you how specially unique your baby is!
Under major structure now is your baby's nervous arrangement. That's the network that coordinates your cutie's every movement. Right now your baby'due south encephalon, spinal cord, and fretfulness become a boost from myelin, a substance that coats the nerves and speeds up the time information technology takes for letters to travel between nervus cells.
Myelin as well helps baby's fretfulness form more circuitous connections, enabling your teeny mover and shaker to perfect more intricate moves such every bit sucking a thumb, clasping hands, and curling his fingers around the umbilical cord.
And guess what, momma! Somebody'south listening to you. Baby'southward ears accept arrived at their final destination — the sides of his head — and the tiny basic within the inner ear have hardened, allowing your baby to hear some sounds, including the sweet sound of your phonation! Now hear this: thanks to all the fourth dimension they spend listening to it in utero, studies show that babies are able to identify their mom's vox right afterwards birth. Continue that in listen the side by side time you serenade your womb with your lullabies…or rock out in the shower. Your little 1 is all ears!
At a Glance
Tiny fingerprints
Your one-of-a-kind baby is truly 1 of a kind now, with unique fingerprints on those little fingertips and toes.
Nerve protection
Myelin, a protective insulation, is starting to course around babyhoped-for'south nerves. This covering continues to grow until your baby's first altogether.
Girl and male child parts defined
Having a girl? The fallopian tubes and uterus are at present in proper position. A male child? Genitals may be visible on your adjacent ultrasound.
18 weeks pregnant is how many months?
If you're 18 weeks significant, you're in month 5 of your pregnancy. Just iv months left to go! Still have questions? Hither's some more data on how weeks, months and trimesters are broken down in pregnancy.
How large is my baby at 18 weeks?
At 5½ inches long from crown to rump and 5 to half dozen½ ounces in weight — about the size of that boneless craven breast you're making for dinner — your baby may be large plenty at present or anytime in the side by side few weeks for you to feel twisting, rolling, kicking and punching in the womb.
Baby is yawning
At present for the skill of the week: The art of the yawn has been mastered by your infant, along with hiccupping, which you may feel shortly, too!
In fact, you lot might catch a glimpse of that ambrosial yawn and all those other fetal movements at your ultrasound this calendar month.
Baby's nervous system is maturing speedily
Something you won't see on the ultrasound — but you lot'll learn is in working order — is your baby's nervous organization, which is maturing rapidly when you lot're xviii weeks pregnant.
A network of fretfulness, now covered with a substance called myelin that helps speed messages from nervus cell to nerve jail cell, are forming more complex connections.
And those in the brain are further developing into the ones that serve the senses of bear on, sense of taste, smell, sight and hearing.
Speaking of hearing, your baby's is growing more astute and infant tin finally fully hear y'all this week, making your picayune i more conscious of sounds that come from inside your body. Meaning yous could both exist listening to each other hiccup!
Your Body at Week 18
Quick growth
Is it a girl? A male child? How about a sizeable fruit or vegetable? At 18 weeks, your infant is about the length of a cucumber and your uterus is around the size of a sweet potato — encounter how you're working your way through the produce section? Information technology can be felt near one½ inches below your belly button — so have a feel.
How Big Are xviii-Week Bumps?
Your 18 weeks meaning abdomen
When you're 18 weeks pregnant, you'll likely look noticeably pregnant, since your infant and uterus are growing chop-chop. Just call back that every woman is different as is each pregnancy, so fifty-fifty this far along, some however take modest bumps while others have popped a lot.
All infant bumps at eighteen weeks pregnant are fine and normal and may vary based on how much weight you lot and babe are gaining, your height and build, and whether this is your get-go pregnancy or non.
Merely don't size up your eighteen weeks meaning abdomen adjacent to those of pregnant friends at the same stage, or worry that you're measuring likewise large or too small. If you're really concerned, you lot can always talk to your practitioner, merely rest bodacious that if yous and your baby are tracking normally at your prenatal appointments, everything is likely just fine.
Your back aches
Something else you may exist feeling right now: back pain. Your growing uterus shifts your center of gravity — which means your lower back is pulled forward while your abdomen is thrust out — good for tipping off the person who got the last seat on the bus that you're pregnant, bad for your dorsum muscles.
Couple that with the changes that the pregnancy hormone relaxin is instituting — namely relaxing all your ligaments, including those that attach your pelvic bones to your spine, and loosening joints — and that leaves you with backaches and pains, not to mention a shifting posture.
Reduce hurting by using a foot rest to elevate your feet slightly when sitting. When standing, place one human foot on a low stool when possible to accept some pressure off your lower dorsum. A long, warm bath can also do wonders. And if your back pain just won't quit, be sure to talk to your practitioner.
Reducing heartburn
Forget the burrito with extra jalapeños — sometimes fifty-fifty a bite of toast will set your gut on fire these days. That's the trouble with heartburn — an all-too-common symptom that can persist throughout your pregnancy. An ounce of prevention may exist worth a pound of Tums — although yous might want to keep those handy, also, since they'll banish the burn while boosting your calcium intake.
For starters, swallow slowly and chew thoroughly. Try not to eat luncheon on the run or gobble your dinner standing upwardly, and swallow smaller meals and snacks rather than five-alarm gut bombs.
Subsequently you finish eating, sit down upright for a few hours, or every bit long equally you can last without collapsing into bed, and sleep with your head elevated, which as well helps with the snoring. And practise skip anything on the carte with a motion picture of a flame next to it!
Pregnancy Symptoms Week xviii
Fetal movement
Bloating and gas
Leg cramps
Haemorrhage gums
Edema (swelling in feet and ankles)
Stretch marks
Tips for You This Week
Don't brand any sudden moves
During pregnancy, progesterone increases the flow of blood to your baby, resulting in lower blood force per unit area and reduced blood flow to your brain — giving yous that faint feeling all over.
To help stave off dizziness, e'er stand up from a sitting or lying position slowly.
Interview pediatricians
Now's a swell time in your pregnancy to interview potential pediatricians. After all, there's a good hazard that the doctor volition starting time meet your babe inside 24 hours of your trivial one'southward nativity.
Then ask a lot of questions before you lot brand your selection and broach topics similar appointment availability, hospital affiliations, vaccines and circumcision.
Time for relaxin?
Unfortunately, we don't mean "relaxing." During the second trimester, your body releases relaxin, a hormone that (equally the name implies) loosens the ligaments that hold your basic together. The result: an achy pelvis and hips — and maybe even bigger feet!
You may exist blasphemous this pregnancy hormone now, but when you're trying to push button out your baby's big head, you lot'll exist thanking relaxin for doing its chore.
Pump iron
Even red-meat eaters can accept a difficult fourth dimension getting plenty atomic number 26 from their diets. If yous're someone who sticks to plant-based foods, yous'll take to double your efforts to pump up the fe — vegan and vegetarian moms-to-be have a college chance for iron-deficiency anemia.
Foods like beans, soy products, oat bran, barley, pumpkin seeds, dried fruits, spinach, seaweed, Jerusalem artichokes and blackstrap molasses all have some iron in them, but y'all may also need to accept an fe supplement to brand sure y'all're meeting your daily quota. Ask your practitioner whether that'south the instance.
Be wary of supplements
Herbal supplements practise make the most tempting of promises — especially when pregnancy leaves you with few cocky-medicating options. Would information technology really hurt to pop a couple of ginkgo biloba capsules to give your brain cells a fighting run a risk of remembering to pay this calendar month's electrical beak? After all, the bottles say "all natural"…and you did buy them at the wellness food store.
Actually, it could hurt — particularly now that you're sharing those pills with a lilliputian someone else. Herbs and herbal remedies are not tested or canonical by the Nutrient and Drug Administration (FDA) prior to going on the market and are not required to undergo clinical trials, so their safe, or lack thereof, is unknown.
Even supplements that you've heard could be helpful could actually be harmful at different points during your pregnancy — by causing premature labor if taken too early, for case.
And a number of herbs — such as basil oil, black or blueish cohosh, clove oil, sassafras, wild yam and many others — can exist downright unsafe if taken anytime during pregnancy. Be safe and bank check with your practitioner earlier you popular whatsoever pill.
Avert some workout moves
Certain exercises may piece of work peachy for the non-significant set, only now that you're expecting, don't fifty-fifty remember nigh trying them.
Just say no to upside-down "bicycles," shoulder stands, or flat-on-your-back positions after the fourth month.
As well off-limits: deep-knee joint bends, dorsum bends, jumping and bouncing.
Get ready for tiny kicks
Y'all'll probably notice baby'southward first little kicks anytime betwixt weeks 18 and 22 — and sometimes equally belatedly every bit weeks 23 or 24 for first-fourth dimension pregnancies.
Those tiny feet tin exist felt in many different ways: as the merest palpitate, the most insistent slug or gas bubbles that aren't gas at all.
Equally for when and how you lot'll feel your baby motion? Several factors come into play: a mom's size (the slimmer you are, the more likely you'll experience movements earlier); your muscle tone (the laxer the uterine muscles, the easier it is to feel those kicks — which is why 2d-timers generally feel them sooner); and the baby's position (it's trickier to notice movement when your infant kicks facing in).
An incorrect due engagement can too throw off the recognition of those monumental first kicks. Don't worry: In that location's no mistaking the existent thing one time your baby gets the technique down — and gets big enough to pack a serious punch.
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Source: https://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/week-by-week/week-18.aspx
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