Size of a Baby at 18 Weeks Pregnant
Noticing a rumbling in your tummy?
It could be pregnancy hunger pangs — or information technology could be the very get-go signs of fetal movement, which can happen at effectually week xviii of pregnancy.
Your Baby at Week 18
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At eighteen weeks, your little chick is about the same size as that chicken chest on your dinner plate — nigh five inches long and five ounces in weight.
Merely don't let his small size fool you — there are big goings-on in that little body of his this week. Meconium — your baby's showtime poop — is slowly starting to accumulate in his bowels. If your infant's a boy, his prostate gland is forming. And both daughter and boy babies now officially sport finger and toe prints. Those tiny swirls and wrinkles mark your infant every bit uniquely himself from hither on out… though there's probably little need to tell y'all how peculiarly unique your baby is!
Under major construction now is your baby's nervous organization. That's the network that coordinates your cutie's every move. Right now your baby's brain, spinal cord, and fretfulness go a boost from myelin, a substance that coats the fretfulness and speeds upwardly the time it takes for messages to travel between nervus cells.
Myelin also helps baby's fretfulness form more than circuitous connections, enabling your teeny mover and shaker to perfect more intricate moves such as sucking a pollex, clasping easily, and crimper his fingers around the umbilical cord.
And guess what, momma! Somebody's listening to you. Infant'due south ears take arrived at their final destination — the sides of his caput — and the tiny bones within the inner ear have hardened, allowing your infant to hear some sounds, including the sweet sound of your vocalization! Now hear this: thanks to all the time they spend listening to it in utero, studies bear witness that babies are able to identify their mom's voice right afterward birth. Keep that in mind the adjacent fourth dimension you serenade your womb with your lullabies…or stone out in the shower. Your little 1 is all ears!
At a Glance
Tiny fingerprints
Your one-of-a-kind baby is truly i of a kind at present, with unique fingerprints on those little fingertips and toes.
Nerve protection
Myelin, a protective insulation, is starting to form around infant-to-be'due south fretfulness. This roofing continues to grow until your baby's first birthday.
Daughter and boy parts defined
Having a girl? The fallopian tubes and uterus are now in proper position. A male child? Genitals may be visible on your side by side ultrasound.
18 weeks pregnant is how many months?
If you're 18 weeks significant, you're in calendar month 5 of your pregnancy. Just 4 months left to go! Still have questions? Here's some more data on how weeks, months and trimesters are broken down in pregnancy.
How big is my baby at 18 weeks?
At 5½ inches long from crown to rump and v to half dozen½ ounces in weight — about the size of that boneless chicken chest you're making for dinner — your babe may be large enough now or someday in the next few weeks for you lot to experience twisting, rolling, kick and punching in the womb.
Baby is yawning
Now for the skill of the calendar week: The art of the yawn has been mastered by your infant, along with hiccupping, which y'all may feel shortly, besides!
In fact, you might catch a glimpse of that adorable yawn and all those other fetal movements at your ultrasound this month.
Baby'due south nervous system is maturing chop-chop
Something you won't run into on the ultrasound — but you'll learn is in working guild — is your babe'south nervous organization, which is maturing rapidly when you're 18 weeks meaning.
A network of nerves, now covered with a substance called myelin that helps speed messages from nerve cell to nerve cell, are forming more complex connections.
And those in the brain are further developing into the ones that serve the senses of touch, gustation, smell, sight and hearing.
Speaking of hearing, your baby's is growing more astute and baby can finally fully hear you this calendar week, making your little i more than witting of sounds that come from inside your body. Meaning you could both be listening to each other hiccup!
Your Body at Week 18
Quick growth
Is it a girl? A boy? How about a sizeable fruit or vegetable? At xviii weeks, your baby is about the length of a cucumber and your uterus is effectually the size of a sweet murphy — run across how you lot're working your way through the produce section? It tin can be felt about 1½ inches below your abdomen push — so have a experience.
How Large Are 18-Week Bumps?
Your eighteen weeks pregnant belly
When yous're 18 weeks meaning, yous'll likely look noticeably pregnant, since your baby and uterus are growing rapidly. Just remember that every woman is different as is each pregnancy, and so even this far along, some nonetheless have small bumps while others have popped a lot.
All baby bumps at 18 weeks pregnant are fine and normal and may vary based on how much weight yous and baby are gaining, your height and build, and whether this is your first pregnancy or non.
But don't size upwardly your 18 weeks pregnant belly side by side to those of pregnant friends at the same stage, or worry that yous're measuring too big or as well small. If you're really concerned, y'all tin always talk to your practitioner, but balance assured that if you and your baby are tracking ordinarily at your prenatal appointments, everything is likely just fine.
Your back aches
Something else y'all may be feeling correct at present: back pain. Your growing uterus shifts your middle 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 omnibus that yous'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 basic to your spine, and loosening joints — and that leaves you with backaches and pains, not to mention a shifting posture.
Reduce pain by using a foot rest to drag your feet slightly when sitting. When standing, place i foot on a low stool when possible to take some pressure off your lower dorsum. A long, warm bath tin can also practice wonders. And if your back pain just won't quit, be sure to talk to your practitioner.
Reducing heartburn
Forget the burrito with actress jalapeños — sometimes fifty-fifty a bite of toast will fix your gut on fire these days. That'due south the trouble with heartburn — an all-also-common symptom that can persist throughout your pregnancy. An ounce of prevention may exist worth a pound of Tums — although you might want to go on those handy, besides, since they'll banish the burn while boosting your calcium intake.
For starters, eat slowly and chew thoroughly. Try not to eat dejeuner on the run or gobble your dinner standing up, and consume smaller meals and snacks rather than five-alarm gut bombs.
Later on you cease eating, sit upright for a few hours, or every bit long as you can terminal without collapsing into bed, and sleep with your caput elevated, which likewise helps with the snoring. And do skip annihilation on the menu with a picture of a flame next to it!
Pregnancy Symptoms Week 18
Fetal movement
Bloating and gas
Leg cramps
Bleeding gums
Edema (swelling in feet and ankles)
Stretch marks
Tips for You This Week
Don't make whatever sudden moves
During pregnancy, progesterone increases the period of claret to your baby, resulting in lower blood force per unit area and reduced blood flow to your encephalon — giving you that faint feeling all over.
To help stave off dizziness, always stand from a sitting or lying position slowly.
Interview pediatricians
At present's a great time in your pregnancy to interview potential pediatricians. Later on all, there's a good gamble that the md will get-go see your baby within 24 hours of your little ane's nascency.
So inquire a lot of questions before y'all make your selection and broach topics like appointment availability, hospital affiliations, vaccines and circumcision.
Time for relaxin?
Unfortunately, we don't hateful "relaxing." During the second trimester, your body releases relaxin, a hormone that (as the name implies) loosens the ligaments that concord your bones together. The result: an achy pelvis and hips — and maybe even bigger anxiety!
Yous may exist cursing this pregnancy hormone now, just when y'all're trying to push out your baby's large head, you'll be thanking relaxin for doing its job.
Pump iron
Even cerise-meat eaters tin can have a hard time getting enough iron from their diets. If yous're someone who sticks to plant-based foods, you'll accept to double your efforts to pump up the iron — vegan and vegetarian momshoped-for accept a higher gamble for iron-deficiency anemia.
Foods like beans, soy products, oat bran, barley, pumpkin seeds, dried fruits, spinach, seaweed, Jerusalem artichokes and blackstrap molasses all take some iron in them, but you may also need to accept an fe supplement to make sure you're coming together your daily quota. Enquire your practitioner whether that's the case.
Be wary of supplements
Herbal supplements do make the most tempting of promises — especially when pregnancy leaves you lot with few self-medicating options. Would it actually injure to pop a couple of ginkgo biloba capsules to give your brain cells a fighting chance of remembering to pay this month'south electric pecker? Later all, the bottles say "all natural"…and yous did buy them at the wellness food store.
Actually, it could hurt — particularly at present that you're sharing those pills with a little someone else. Herbs and herbal remedies are not tested or approved past the Food and Drug Assistants (FDA) prior to going on the market and are not required to undergo clinical trials, so their safety, or lack thereof, is unknown.
Even supplements that you've heard could be helpful could actually be harmful at different points during your pregnancy — past causing premature labor if taken besides early, for instance.
And a number of herbs — such as basil oil, black or blue cohosh, clove oil, sassafras, wild yam and many others — tin can exist downright dangerous if taken anytime during pregnancy. Be safe and cheque with your practitioner before you pop any pill.
Avert some workout moves
Sure exercises may work great for the non-significant set, only now that you're expecting, don't even recall nearly trying them.
Just say no to upside-downwards "bicycles," shoulder stands, or apartment-on-your-back positions afterward the fourth month.
Also off-limits: deep-knee bends, back bends, jumping and bouncing.
Get gear up for tiny kicks
Y'all'll probably notice baby'south commencement little kicks anytime between weeks xviii and 22 — and sometimes as late as weeks 23 or 24 for first-time pregnancies.
Those tiny feet can be felt in many different means: as the merest flutter, the most insistent slug or gas bubbling that aren't gas at all.
Equally for when and how you lot'll feel your baby move? Several factors come up into play: a mom's size (the slimmer you are, the more likely yous'll feel movements earlier); your muscle tone (the laxer the uterine muscles, the easier it is to feel those kicks — which is why 2nd-timers generally experience them sooner); and the baby's position (it'southward trickier to observe movement when your baby kicks facing in).
An incorrect due appointment tin can too throw off the recognition of those monumental first kicks. Don't worry: There's no mistaking the existent affair in one case 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#:~:text=How%20big%20is%20my%20baby,and%20punching%20in%20the%20womb.
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