To all who read this: As I was forced by my own admonition
to get through every word of this particular pregnancy calendar, I actually
felt like "I" was having the baby.
With 37 pics along the way, I recommend this read to every man and every
woman whether there is a plan for pregnancy or if an unplanned pregnancy
happens. It is truly gripping, the pinpoint accuracy at which the healthy fetus
evolves.
Even though in this read I have skipped pregnancy days that
dealt moreso with the mother’s discomfort or may have had a slower growth time
(116 days), they are by no means any unimportant birthing days. I have accompanied graphics that
I had sitting on a different burner in my computer but the words really do say
it all.
After being in front of this computer for over 4 hours I was
literally forced to walk away from it several times. Well, moms, I now fully
appreciate that you cannot just walk away from your pregnancy.
So, a must read
for everyone if not for mom, but for dad also:
1st 2 Weeks
Day 15
Today, a single-cell organism forms from the union of your
ovum, or egg, and your partner’s sperm. Over the coming months, your daughter
or son will develop from this barely visible single cell called a zygote. This
beginning is called conception or fertilization.
Day 17
In the last twenty-four hours, the two identical cells have
undergone three or four additional cell divisions.
Day 19
An important change takes place in the cell ball. Fluid
secreted by the cells passes into the center of the cell ball and divides the
cells into two groups: Those on the outside will support the pregnancy, and
those on the inside (called the embryonic disc) will form the baby.
Day 20
The cell ball now contains several hundred cells, some of
which group together to form a bump on the inside of the wall. When the cell
ball comes to rest on the surface of your uterus, the process of implantation
begins.
Day 22
Once implantation is complete, the developing baby is called
an embryo, from the Greek words meaning “to grow in” (en = in and bruein = to
grow). Congratulations! You (actually, your body) have finally officially met
your developing baby.
Day 24
Implantation is now complete and the placenta begins to
function. Your embryonic baby grows rapidly. The amniotic sac, amniotic cavity,
primitive umbilical cord, and yolk sac continue to develop.
Day 28
The chorionic villi are now fully formed. The amniotic sac,
amniotic cavity, umbilical stalk, and yolk sac have also completed their
development. The cells that will form the baby have flattened into a structure
called the embryonic disc.
Day 29
The primitive streak appears (this is the forerunner of the
brain and spinal cord). It is now possible to identify the head and tail
sections of your baby’s body.
Day 30
The flat embryonic disc now has three distinct layers of
tissue [and] all of the baby’s cells and organs will form from these three
tissue layers.
Day 31
The top layer of cells, or ectoderm, compress to form a
groove called the notochord, which gives rise to the vertebrae, or the bones of
the spine, and the discs of tissue between those bones.
Day 32
The heart tubes are fusing together—the first step in
forming a primitive version of the baby’s heart that will begin to circulate
the blood cells throughout its body by the end of this week.
Day 34
Today
was a big day in the development of your baby’s muscles, bones, spinal cord,
and heart. Calcium, magnesium, and potassium are nutrients that
directly affect the development of the baby’s heart. These elements are
essential to nerve impulse conduction, heart-muscle contraction, and muscle relaxation
and contraction.
Day 35
The first system to function in your developing baby is its
cardiovascular system (the heart and blood vessels.)
Day 36
Between week 4 and week 8, the development of your baby’s
facial features takes place.
Day 37
Right now, stem cells are migrating from the yolk sac to the back wall of the baby’s body, where they will form the reproductive tract. By the end of this month, your baby will have completed a period of growth that involves the greatest size and physical changes of its lifetime. In five days, it will be 10,000 times larger than the fertilized egg though, in actuality, not much bigger than a grain of rice!
Day 38
Within a few hours, the tiny buds that form the arms will
suddenly appear. Your baby’s heart is actually beating!
Day 39
The aorta of your baby’s heart is forming. In addition, the
tissue that will form your baby’s eyes is present, and a tiny depression now
marks the place on either side of the head where the baby’s ear canal and inner
ear will form.
Day 41
By now a tiny liver has formed. The gall bladder, stomach,
intestines, pancreas, and lungs are also beginning to form.
Day 43
The arms look like flippers; leg buds are visible. The
baby’s body cavity contains all the tissues needed to develop the baby’s
reproductive structures, beginning with the ovaries (if your baby is a girl) or
testes (if your baby is a boy). During the next six days, the baby’s brain,
body, and head will undergo a period of rapid growth.
Day 44
By this time, 38 pairs of somites have formed (the somites
form the bones and muscles of the head and trunk). Your baby’s brain has
differentiated into the three main parts possessed by all human brains: the
forebrain, the midbrain, and the hindbrain.
Day 45
The hypothalamus — a structure critical to the regulating of
eating, sexual behavior, and temperature—begins to form today or tomorrow. Cups
are formed that will cradle the eyeballs, a primitive version of the mouth
appears, and the larynx or voice box has begun to develop.
Day 47
In the next four days, the hand plates will appear (each
hand plate contains the tissues that will form the hands and fingers).
Day 48
Because of the rapid brain growth that has been occurring,
your baby’s head is much larger than its trunk. The nasal pits are easily seen
and the muscles that control the baby’s eyes are forming. Your baby’s legs now
resemble paddles.
Day 49
By now, the division between the cerebral hemispheres (two
halves of your baby’s brain) is well marked. The upper and lower jaws are
present.
Day 50
The cerebellum, the area of the brain that coordinates
muscle movement, is beginning to develop. The elbow and wrist regions of the
arm are becoming identifiable. The liver is now large enough to produce a bulge
in your baby’s abdomen.
Day 51
Your baby now measures .3 to .43 inch long (8–11 mm), having
doubled in length in just eight short days. Your baby is growing at a
phenomenal rate.
Day 53
Tomorrow, your baby’s lower limb paddles will have
developed foot plates and pigment will be present in the retina of your baby’s
eye. Several small swellings, which will become the auditory canal and the
grooves of the outer ear, are present on each side of baby’s head. If you cannot eliminate caffeine completely during
pregnancy, at least cut back to one cup of coffee or its equivalent per day.
Day 54
The baby’s eyes look pigmented (eye color won’t be
established until after birth). The baby teeth (or first teeth) are developing
beneath your baby’s gums.
Day 55
Within the next two days, the hand plates will develop
ridges indicating where your baby’s fingers and thumbs will be. Your baby now
measures nearly 1/2-inch long (11–14 mm).
Day 56
Today, the critical period for your baby’s arm development
has ended. The arms are now at their proper location and proportional size for
this stage in development.
Day 57
Over the next two days, indentations will form where your
baby’s knees and ankles will eventually develop. The gonads are forming in the
pelvis and, over the next week or so, will become either testes or ovaries
depending on the sex of your child. Baby’s eyelids are also forming.
Day 58
The baby now displays a reflex response to touch — if an
object touches the baby’s head, your baby will turn away. Semicircular canals that
sense balance and body position are beginning to form in your baby’s inner ear.
Today marks the day when the earliest recordable brain waves will occur.
Day 60
The cells that will form your baby’s nose develop around the
nasal sacs as the facial tissues fuse to form the rudimentary parts of the
face. By today, the toe ridges have appeared on each foot plate. The skin on
the foot plate folds down between the future toes, distinguishing each from the
other.
Day 63
Over the next three days, your baby’s arms will lengthen
somewhat and begin bending at the elbow. The fingers and thumb have appeared,
and are short and webbed with folds of skin in between. The baby’s arms at this
point are only as long as this printed 1.
Day 65
The retina of the eye is now fully pigmented. The baby’s
tail is still visible, but stubby, and disappears by the end of this week. The
muscles of your baby’s arms and body can already be “moved” by its brain.
Day 66
Your baby: By today or tomorrow, the external ears will be
completely developed.
Day 68
The head now looks rounded and is disproportionately large,
making up almost half of the baby’s length.
Day 71
Over the next four days, fingernails, toenails, and hair
follicles will appear (these are all specialized parts of the top layer of
skin) and your baby will assume a more upright posture. Your baby’s growth
period as an embryo has just ended. From now until birth, your baby is
technically called a “fetus.”
Day 72
Your baby’s head now makes up more than half of its length.
For the time being, the face is broad, the eyes widely separated, the lids are
closing, and the ears are low-set.
Day 76
Ossification centers are established in the skull; those in
the long bones continue to develop as your baby becomes more solid. The baby’s
bones and muscles are growing rapidly. The baby’s developing body begins to
attain proportions more like a newborn baby.
Day 77
The skin has become thicker and less transparent. The vagina
is beginning to develop in females; the penis is now distinguishable in males.
Day 80
Your baby’s brain now has the same structure it will have at
birth, but it’s just a smaller size. With rare exceptions, you won’t feel your
lively baby move yet. The baby’s newly formed muscles are weak, and your baby
is so small that the womb has barely expanded and is still contained within the
framework of your hips.
Day 81
A new reflex is present: Now when your baby’s face is
touched, it will open its mouth. This is called the rooting reflex and helps
babies find the food source.
Day 82
Within the next three days, the hard, bony part of the
palate is completely formed and the pancreas begins to secrete insulin. In
addition to occasional headaches, you may notice some dizziness and faintness.
Day 84
The muscles in the walls of the digestive tract have become
functional and are beginning to practice the contractions they will make when
they have food to digest.
Day 89
By today, all of your baby’s 20 baby teeth and their sockets
have formed in the gums. Over the next three days, the intestines will form
into folds and become lined with villi (small, fingerlike projections in the
lining of the intestines that absorb certain nutrients).
Day 91
Your baby’s liver will have begun to secrete bile and the
pancreas will have begun to produce insulin. By this time, you may have
experienced some back pain. The chief cause is the production of relaxin, a
hormone that allows your pelvis to expand to accommodate the growing uterus and
encourages the joints connecting the hips to the backbone to loosen to make
childbirth easier.
Day 93
Your baby practices inhaling and exhaling movements in the
womb that send amniotic fluid in and out of its lungs. The presence of the
fluid is essential to the proper formation of the air sacs within the lungs.
Day 95
Over the next three days, your baby’s spleen will assume
functions supervised by the liver: the removal of old red blood cells and the
production of antibodies.
Day 96
The bony palate, or roof of the mouth, has been complete for
some weeks, the sucking muscles are filling out the cheeks, the tooth buds are
present under the gums, the esophagus and windpipe are present, and the larynx,
or voice box, is present. By today, the baby’s salivary glands will begin to
function. Over the next three days, your baby will begin to make breathing,
sucking, and swallowing motions.
Day 97
[Your] baby’s arms have almost reached their final
proportions relative to body size, but the legs are still quite short. The
spleen is now fully functional. During your pregnancy, your uterus will
increase in weight from approximately 1 ounce (28 g) to more than 2 1/4 pounds
(1.13 kg) — more than 360 times its original weight.
Day 98
This day marks the end of the third full month of pregnancy.
Day 99
During the next month, your baby will grow faster than it
ever has or ever will. In addition, your growing uterus is getting big enough
to press on a major blood vessel just to the right of your spine (the vena
cava) when you lie on your back.
Day 101
The rapid and sustained growth experienced by the baby this
month enables it to be more agile than before. For example, your baby can now
turn its head, open its mouth, and press its lips together. Not bad for
somebody who only weighs 1 ounce (28 g) and stands only 33?8 inches (8.5cm)
tall!
Day 103
Your baby now displays more sophisticated hand and arm
movements, such as making a fist, moving the thumbs, bending the wrists, and
grasping. All the body movements that the baby engages in right now constitute
practice.
Day 108
During this month, your baby’s body will begin to grow
faster than its head. By this time, your baby’s external genitals are
distinctly male or distinctly female in appearance.
Day 111
Your baby’s head now appears upright—the chin no longer seems
to rest on the chest. You’ll probably feel most comfortable now that you’re in
your second trimester. With any luck, morning sickness (if you had it) may be
past and your energy level is likely to be up.
Day 112
Day 112
Day 113
During this entire week, the baby grows rapidly, with growth
setting the stage for development later this month. Your baby’s weight will
increase six times during this fourth month of pregnancy. Even then, the baby
will only weigh 6 ounces (168 g), not even half a pound.
Day 114
Blood travels with considerable force through the umbilical
cord, giving the cord the same kind of tension as a water-filled hose. The cord
resists knotting and tends to straighten itself out as your baby moves about.
Day 116
Your baby is adding to its list of reflex behaviors:
blinking helps keep foreign objects out of their eyes and keeps their eyes
moist, sucking and swallowing provide for the ingestion of nutrients. Right
now, your baby is practicing all three of these reflex behaviors. It is also
working on incorporating some additional reflexes, so that by the time it is
born, the average full-term baby will display more than seventy different
reflex behaviors.
Day 119
This was a week of rapid, whole-body growth for your baby.
Existing structures became larger and more well-developed, but no new
structures were formed. The chances are good that this week’s growth spurt for
your baby also resulted in a growth spurt for you.
Day 121
By today, meconium (the early fecal waste material) will
begin to accumulate in your baby’s bowel. This material is the product of cell
loss, digestive secretions, and swallowed amniotic fluid and is the result of
the digestive system practicing digestion while still in the womb.
Day 122
Day 123
Baby’s external ears now stand out from its head, and its
eyes look forward rather than to the side.
Day 125
Over the next two days, the ears will move to their final positions. From this week on, your heart has to work 40–50 percent harder to support your pregnancy.
Day 126
Sometime during this week the process of myelinization
begins. Myelinization involves coating the nerves with a fatty substance called
myelin to speed nerve cell transmission and to insulate the nerves so messages
are uninterrupted. The baby that has been growing so rapidly inside you now
measures 5 1/2 inches (140 mm) in length, big enough for you to cradle in the
palm of your hand.
Day 128
Over the next two days, lanugo (temporary downy hair) will
begin to appear on your baby’s head and body. The lanugo helps hold the protective
vernix on the skin, and by the time the baby is born, most of the lanugo will
have disappeared.
Day 130
If your baby is a girl, miniature egg cells now exist in her
ovaries. Baby girls are born with all the eggs they will ever have in their
ovaries — about 2 million! By the time she is ready to have a family of her
own, your daughter’s eggs will be as old as she is.
Day 136
The baby sleeps and wakes as much as a newborn does now.
When your baby sleeps, it characteristically settles into its favorite position
or “lie.” Some babies always sleep with their chins resting on the chest, while
others tilt their heads back.
Day 139
By today, hair will have begun to form on your baby’s head.
In another month, the head hair may be up to an inch long.
Day 140
The baby weighs about 11 ounces (308 g) and measures about 6
1/3 inches (160 mm) in length. Most women feel movement for the first time
between weeks 17 and 20. Feeling movement helps form the attachment or
emotional bond between you and your baby that will last a lifetime.
Day 142
The amniotic fluid is the perfect substance to support your
baby’s movement. The baby can move in any way their brain and muscles direct:
spinning, jackknifing, turning, and somersaulting.
Day 145
The umbilical cord is so well engineered that the blood
stream travels at four miles an hour and completes the round-trip through the
cord and through the baby in only thirty seconds.
Day 147
Right now your baby looks like a miniature newborn. Its face
looks peaceful with closed eyes, nostrils, and a nicely formed mouth. Every
once in a while, its thumb or finger will slip into the mouth and your baby
will practice sucking.
Day 148
During this week, your baby’s brain will begin to grow
rapidly. This rapid growth continues until your child is five years old.
Day 152
If your baby is a boy, by today the testes will have begun
their descent from the pelvis into the scrotum. Remember that ovaries and the
testes are formed from the same tissue. The same tissue that forms the external
larger labia in girls comes together and fuses to form the scrotum in boys.
Day 153
Even though its eyelids are fused, the baby is now making
blinking movements. The spine, ribs, and long bones of the arms and legs have
hardened into bone. At this point, the skull plates that cover the forehead,
temples, and top and back of the skull are present and made of cartilage.
Day 154
Day 154
Day 155
The bones of the middle ear (the three smallest bones in the
human body: the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup) are beginning to harden to
make sound conduction possible.
Day 156
The baby will gain considerable weight within the next four
weeks.
Day 161
Fine, downy lanugo covers the baby’s entire body, including
the head. During the next six weeks, the baby will grow in ways that will
safeguard its survival if born prematurely. Every day the baby spends growing
in the womb is a day filled with developmental progress!
Day 165
Your baby continues to grow at a steady pace. More than 6
ounces (168 g) of weight will be gained during this week alone. This growth
spurt helps your baby prepare for life outside your uterus.
Day 167
Sounds that are heard daily by your baby include the beating
of your heart, the sound of your voice resonating as you speak, the sound of
air filling your lungs and being exhaled, and the growling noises made by your
stomach and intestines.
Day 171
The baby will develop a strong grip during this month—far
more powerful than that of the infant soon after birth.
Day 174
The baby’s nostrils (which until now have been plugged)
begin to open. By today, blood vessels will have developed in the lungs. After
birth, these vessels will allow blood to flow through the lungs to intercept
oxygen and circulate it to your baby’s tissues.
Day 175
During this month, the buds for your baby’s permanent teeth
will come in, high in the gums behind the baby teeth. The baby’s spine will be
made up of 33 rings, 150 joints, and 1,000 ligaments, all of which are used to
support the body’s weight. All of those structures will begin to form during
this month.
Day 179
Over the next four days, brain wave activity will begin for
your baby’s visual and auditory systems. The sensory systems are developing the
kind of connections with the brain that will be useful for interpreting input
after birth. While the presence of brain wave activity indicates that your
baby’s eyes have encountered a light source or that your baby’s ears have
intercepted a sound message, no comprehension is possible yet.
Day 182
At this point, [your baby] has completed two-thirds of its
stay in your womb. In the next three months, the baby will be progressively
able to survive without such an intimate attachment.
Day 183
Today is a very significant day: Your baby’s lungs are now
capable of breathing air. Now that your baby can breathe air, you can breathe a
sigh of relief.
Day 185
Your baby’s lungs continue their rapid growth. You will need
about an extra 300 calories per day now, as you enter the last three months of
your pregnancy. This week marks the beginning of your third — and last —
trimester of pregnancy.
Day 187
By this time, your baby’s brain wave patterns are similar to
those of a full-term baby at birth. Activity is beginning in the portions of
the brain that process visual and auditory information.
Day 191
Day 193
In the next day or so, your baby’s eyes will be completely
formed and lashes are forming.
Day 194
The baby’s sucking and swallowing skills are improving.
During pregnancy, a number of conditions can cause fainting: particularly hot
weather, sudden changes in posture, standing for long periods of time, fatigue
or excitement, stuffy rooms, and crowds.
Day 195
By today or tomorrow, eyelashes are present on your baby’s
eyelids. At birth, a major valve must close inside the baby’s heart
to keep the used blood and the fresh, oxygenated blood separated.
Day 196
Day 196
Day 198
The baby’s brain can now direct rhythmic breathing and
control body temperature. This means that if your baby is born now, its brain
can usually stimulate it to breathe and sustain that activity without medical
intervention. It also means that the baby’s body can help regulate its own
temperature, taking steps to cool down when too warm or warm up when too cold.
Day 200
Over the next three days or so, your baby’s skin will become
smoother and less wrinkled as more fat is deposited underneath its surface. Contact your practitioner immediately if you experience
severe headaches, blurry vision, sudden weight gain, or severe swelling in the
hands, feet, ankles, or face. These symptoms can indicate high blood pressure,
which can be dangerous for both you and your baby.
Day 201
Your baby’s body is preparing to see you, hear your voice,
recognize you by your distinctive smell, and taste the liquid nutrition you
will provide. Your baby’s birth is not very far away. Each square inch of the baby’s skin will ultimately contain
700 sweat glands, 100 oil-bearing glands, and 21,000 cells sensitive to heat.
Day 204
Within the next three days, your baby’s brain begins to take
on a wrinkled appearance because of its rapid growth. The wrinkles are called
convolutions. A convoluted brain contains more brain cells than a smooth,
nonconvoluted brain and is potentially more powerful.
Day 205
Your baby will put on more than 1 pound (448 g) during this
month. By the end of this week, baby’s crown-to-rump length will be about 11
inches (28 cm) — almost the size of a standard ruler.
Day 206
By this time, red blood cell production by the spleen ends
and is entirely taken over by the bone marrow.
Day 208
The process of myelinization begins to speed nerve cell
transmission. Myelin is a fatty substance that coats the outside of nerve cells
and makes nerve cell transmission faster, easier, and more efficient.
Day 210
Your baby’s toenails may be visible, and a good head of hair
is often present by this point. When this day ends, you will have been pregnant
for seven complete months.
Day 213
If your baby is born now, it may have a callous on its thumb
from sucking it in the womb.
Day 216
The baby’s brain is still developing rapidly, increasing the
number of interconnections between individual nerve cells and identifying
groups of cells that will perform complicated functions throughout your baby’s
lifetime.
Day 218
At this point your baby can register information from all
five of its senses.
Day 224
Because of the rapid brain growth of the last few weeks, the
circumference of your baby’s head has increased by about 3/8 inch (9.5 mm). The
developing brain pushes outward on the skull, but it also folds in upon itself
to create more of the convolutions mentioned earlier.
Day 225
As you begin [this week], your baby is continuing to grow at
an amazing rate. Right now it measures around a foot long (305 mm) and weighs
about 3 – 3 3/4 pounds (1,700 g—the weight equivalent of 7 cups of water).
Day 228
Sometimes babies at this stage practice sucking by sucking
their thumbs or fingers. Although you may be quite tired, you still may have
difficulty sleeping because of backache, baby movement, feeling too hot,
headaches, leg cramps, or trouble finding a comfortable position.
Day 231
At the close of this week of pregnancy, the circumference,
or distance around, your baby’s head has increased by about 3/8 inch (9.5 mm)
due to its rapid brain growth.
Day 233
Your baby’s eyes will open during the alert times of its
daily cycle, and close when it sleeps. The eyes are usually blue at this time,
regardless of the final color they will become, because the pigmentation that
colors the eye is not fully developed. Final formation of eye pigmentation
generally requires a few weeks’ exposure to light.
Day 235
At birth, the baby’s umbilical cord is closed naturally by a
special jellylike substance that surrounds the vessels of the cord throughout
pregnancy. Some naturally occurring hormones in the jelly also help to prevent
bleeding. The surface of the umbilical cord contains no pain receptors, so
cutting the cord at birth is not painful for the baby or you in any way.
Day 239
Right now, your baby weighs at least 4 1/2 pounds (2,100 g)
and measures almost 12 inches (300 mm) crown to rump.
Day 241
The baby might “drop” (settle down into your pelvis) before
labor begins, but not all babies drop prior to the onset of labor. If the baby
drops (this is also called settling or lightening), you will begin to notice a
decrease in lap space when seated, a sudden ease of breathing, more stomach
capacity (since the load has shifted down), more pelvic pressure, and more
frequent urination, maybe even slight incontinence (difficulty holding your
urine).
Day 244
By this time, your baby’s skin looks pink and smooth because underlying deposits of fat have masked some of the redness of the capillaries. You may notice stronger and more frequent Braxton-Hicks contractions, some of which may even be painful. This is normal.
Day 251
Within the next day or so, the percentage of white fat in
your baby’s body will have increased to 8 percent.
Day 252
Day 252
Day 253
Eighty-eight percent of babies are born within two weeks of
their expected dates of delivery (EDD), either early or late. You and your baby
are two weeks from that time frame now.
Day 254
Fetal blood flows through two umbilical arteries and one
umbilical vein. During late pregnancy, a soft blowing sound called “funic
souffle” can be heard over the location of your baby’s umbilical cord. Bright red discharge or persistent spotting should be
reported to your practitioner immediately.
Day 256
Your baby will now automatically turn toward a source of
light. This is called the “orienting response” and permits your baby to
practice being more aware of its environment.
Day 260
Your baby’s intestines are accumulating considerable
meconium, a dark green mass of used cells and waste product from the baby’s
liver, pancreas, and gall bladder. False Labor vs. True Labor: With Braxton-Hicks, or false
labor, contractions, the pain begins in your lower abdomen. The contractions
that accompany true labor begin in your lower back and the pain spreads to your
lower abdomen.
Day 265
If your baby is a girl, over the last three or so days the
larger, external labia or lips have formed over the smaller covered labia. Frequent urination can help labor progress: A full bladder
will push against the uterus, causing discomfort.
Day 267
Contrary to popular understanding, human gestation actually
requires nine and a half lunar months, not nine. These last two weeks are part
of that additional period.
Day 268
Over the next couple of days, your baby’s lungs will begin
to increase their production of a surfactant, which will keep the air sacs in
the lungs open. Your uterus is highly muscular and weighs 2 1/2 pounds (1,134
g) now that the baby is fully developed. During a contraction, the uterus feels
hard to the touch.
Day 271
There are many reasons why you might have more difficulty
sleeping from now on. The baby may be much more active, you may be experiencing
periodic contractions, and you’re probably anxious and anticipating the birth.
All of this is very predictable and common.
Day 272
The average length of a newborn’s umbilical cord is 2 feet
(610 mm), but the cord can vary from 5 inches (127 mm) to more than 4 feet
(1,219 mm) long.
Day 275
Don’t worry if your baby’s head becomes molded or elongated
during the birth process. It will return to its normal, rounded shape a few
days after childbirth. The molding is a safety precaution—the bones of the
skull carefully slide over one another to reduce the skull’s diameter, so the
pressure of the contractions and tight fit through the mother’s pelvis doesn’t
damage the baby’s brain.
Day 276
Over the next three days, your baby’s chest will become more
prominent. The breasts of both boy and girl babies may protrude because of the
estrogen transferred from the mother’s system. A kick from the womb during this
stage of pregnancy can almost knock a book off your lap!
Day 278
The first breaths your baby takes are the hardest. It has
been calculated that the first breathing-in requires five times the effort of
an ordinary breath, because fluid must be pushed out of the lungs before the
air drawn in can expand the thousands of tiny uninflated air sacs in the lungs.
It is an effort that can be compared to clearing a snorkel tube that has gotten
water in it.
Day 280 HORRAY!!! YOU MADE IT
WITHOUT DRINKING!!!
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