Baby Development
The Week 20 edition:
This is the big week! You have reached midway through your pregnancy! You can finally feel your baby’s movements- maybe a flutter, but a stronger flutter. The lanugo, small baby hair, is growing on your baby’s skin. Nails have formed both on its fingers and toes. Amongst the rest, it’s eyebrows and eyelashes are growing too! It’s a growth spurt this week! Your baby can now be measured from head to toe instead of from crown to rump. At about the size of a banana, your baby weighs around 297 grams and is 25.4 cm from head to toe. This is a good week to have the anatomy or anomaly ultrasound, where the radiologist sees every part of the baby- all the organs, ten fingers and ten toes. This is also a good time to locate the placenta to make sure it is growing in an optimal part of the uterus. While this can be done anywhere from 18-22 weeks, 20 weeks is a sweet spot!
Here is a comprehensive list of everything your baby has been up to this week:
- Eyelashes and eyebrows are starting to form.
- Nails are there on both the fingers and toes.
- Vernix, a substance acting as a skin barrier, is continuing to form on the baby’s skin
- Same with the lanugo, downy baby hair.
- Your baby’s limbs have grown sufficiently.
- Its taste buds are slowly getting activated.
- Baby can suck their thumb now!
Mother
Track your growth at Week 20:
Curious if it is a girl or a boy? Well, the time has come for you to know! Your appetite only seems to be getting heartier, eat plenty of iron while you’re at it. You may experience nosebleeds and a stuffy nose. Your skin may feel particularly stretched around your belly and breasts, moisture it well. Be sensitive to the movements in you, it’s your baby communicating! Go for walks but don’t overdo it, the best way to exercise is to do it in bits, snack on activity. Pamper yourself by dressing comfortably.
Here is a list of symptoms you may see this week:
- Due to increased levels of estrogen, you may experience nosebleeds and a stuffy, runny nose.
- Your hair and nails are growing along with your baby bump!
- Women who have stretched skin, use cream, preferably oil – free.
- If you are feeling restless while sleeping, make yourself comfortable. Change your sleeping position or use a maternity pillow perhaps.
- Remember, headaches could be because of dehydration, set reminders to drink water. Make your water interesting by flavouring it with mint, lemon, salt, watermelon, cucumber, ginger. Try different combinations!
- Feel your baby move! The subtle movements you feel in your belly are called “quickening”.
