The Stages Of Pregnancy - The Second Trimester
Author: Janet Hart

What's happening inside the womb now:

Your baby is more active, though you can't quite feel it moving
yet. He may start to put his thumb in his mouth now, and his
skull is starting to get more solid. Ribs are starting to form
but aren't quite visible yet.

Early in the second trimester, hormones are having their
effect! The prostate gland or ovaries are developing. The roof
of your baby's mouth is nearly complete.

Around the third week of this trimester, your baby now has a
layer of transparent skin, and is starting to form eyebrows and
hair on his head. Eyes and ears have more definition and bone
and marrow are now forming.

One month into the 2nd trimester, your child is four and five
inches in length and weighs nearly 3 ounces. Your baby's eyes
are becoming sensitive to light. Her eyes are becoming
sensitive to light and she can squint, frown and display other
expressions. She can also make a fist.

That all important fat layer that keeps us warm and protects
and energizes our body is forming now.

Your child can swallow! The nerves in his brain are now
connected to the ears which have reached their final position
on the skull. Your son can hear your heart beat, and the rumble
of hunger in your stomach. He may react to loud noises outside
his environment but jumping or moving.

By the 18th week of your pregnancy, you may already have felt
the first signs of life in your womb. If not, you WILL soon.
Your baby's hearing has improved. He can faintly hear your
voice and the voices of others as you converse. He can move his
muscles reflexively and his kidneys are producing urine which is
stored in your amniotic sac after it is excreted. He has a new
coating (vernix) and very fine hair (lanugo) to protect his
thin skin.

About 6 inches long now, weighing about 9 ounces your baby is
most likely moving around by now and you can feel it! Her skin
is thicker and less transparent and she has eyebrows and some
hair on her head. During this trimester, bone marrow begins to
produce blood cells and your child starts to ingest sugar from
your amniotic fluid.

Your baby is about one pound around 21 weeks into your
pregnancy. She has developed a sense of touch and now has taste
buds. Genitalia is complete.

Your child will practice breathing by moving your amniotic
fluid in and out of his lungs. His skin is much less
transparent and he is developing more fat.

Your son has fingerprints! His inner ear has developed to the
point where he can sense whether he is upside down in the womb.
By now, he will have developed a schedule or cycle for sleep and
wakefulness

Fingers and hands are fully developed though your baby's
ability to control these tools is far from refined. You will
notice more movement as your child explores his limited
universe within the womb.

Maybe close to 2 pounds by your 25th week, your baby is growing
faster with clearly defined eyebrows, eyelashes and eyes. At
the end of this trimester, you are 2/3 of the way to delivery
and the changes you and your baby experience during the final
trimester will be even more dramatic. Right now your baby's
organs and immune system are working hard to reach completion
in time for delivery, and he has grown to 3-4 times in length
since the end of the first trimester.

During your second trimester you may still be experiencing
morning sickness and you may have started to have headaches and
a sensitivity and aversion to certain smells and foods.


About The Author: Janet Hart is the owner of
http://www.freefamilyhelp.com A free family resource site
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