Your baby is still growing rapidly, and underlying fat deposits are smoothing the appearance of the skin. During this week, it will grow 1⁄2 inch (13 mm) longer.
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.
Your baby’s fingernails have [now] reached the ends of its fingertips. You may find you have to cut its nails after birth. Even though the nails are small, they can still scratch (babies scratch themselves because of their poor muscle control). The newborn’s face may even have some scratch marks on it from its own long fingernails.
Did You Know?
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. |
| Did You Know?Your baby’s growth rate is astonishing. Over the past week, its head circumference has increased by about another 3⁄8 inch (9.5 mm) due to its rapid brain development. The critical period for the development of the baby’s brain occurs in these last months of pregnancy. |
You
Throughout your pregnancy, you have been supplying your baby with antibody protection to help make it immune to respiratory and gastrointestinal infections as well as to common viral infections (like measles), if such antibodies are present in your system. The antibodies are passed from your bloodstream through the placenta to the baby’s bloodstream. If your baby is born now, it will not only be able to make an efficient transition from the womb to the outside, but it will also be able to resist disease.
Since the amniotic fluid volume has reached its maximum, you can now think of your baby as resting on the walls of your uterus rather than actually floating in a fluid-filled space. It is still bathed in amniotic fluid, of course, and that fluid is replaced continuously by your efficient system.
Parenting Tips
Don’t worry if you don’t feel overwhelming love for your baby from the moment of birth. Early feelings for a baby can be remarkably ambivalent sometimes. Parental love often takes weeks and sometimes months to develop, so enjoy getting to know one another and developing a lasting parent-child bond. |
