Week 17
Your Baby's Development
As your pregnancy progresses, your baby's first feces are starting to build up in her bowels. Called meconium, this sticky substance is made up of dead cells, digestive juices, and swallowed amniotic fluid. Meconium is usually not excreted until after birth, although occasionally Baby may release it into the amniotic fluid before delivery.
Baby is now almost five inches long and weighs about four or five ounces. She is firmly anchored via the umbilical cord to the placenta, which continues to grow with her. The placenta, which is now more than an inch thick, contains thousands of blood vessels that exchange nutrients and oxygen from your body to your baby.
Big happenings this week include:
Layers of fat are beginning to develop under the skin to help keep Baby warm and protect her after birth.
A rubbery skeleton continues to develop, although Baby's bones are still primarily cartilage, flexible enough to enable her to pass through the birth canal.
A protective coating called myelin is slowly beginning to cover Baby's spinal cord. This coating will help protect the cord for the rest of Baby's life.
3 comments:
Only 14? WOW- you guys must have alot of days off or end early- in Chicago it was like June 22- argggg! I think it may be a little earlier now, but still more then 14 teaching days:) GOOD FOR YOU!!! Are you going back to work up till your due date, or whats the plan?
Well, I am lucky b/c I only work 3 mornings a week so that is why I have so few--school really ends June 11 with half day testing until the 15th (I get out of testing though b/c I only teach one "testable" class and my husband works at the same school and can supervise it for me)! I am definately not going back to work I am due the 19th of October so I would only be able to teach for a week or so before going on disability--I love the job but not that much!!
so precious michelle-almost makes me want to do it again=)
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