Pregnancy Trimester by Trimester

Welcome to the honeymoon phase!

• The second trimester of pregnancy stretches from week 13 to week 28 and is often called the honeymoon phase because many of the early niggles and discomforts have passed.
  
• One notices posture changes in baby as more muscles develop and the skeleton becomes stronger.
  
• Independent hormone production is now possible while until now baby's endocrine requirements have been produced by the mother.
• Baby now stretches and exercise its arm and leg muscles.

Spending the night on your side—specifically the left side is the best sleep position during 14 week pregnancy.

• Your baby's pigments for hair colour now starts to be produced, with their unique fingerprints and wrinkly loose skin.
  
• Baby's eyes have moved closer together, their ears have reached their final position and urine starts to pass.
• By this week baby's kidneys have the typical kidney shape, and their sweat glands begin developing.

• Your baby's current home is the amniotic sac in your uterus. The uterus begins about four or five inches below your navel.
  
• Baby's heartbeat may be able to be heard through a specialized hand-held stethoscope called a fetoscope now.
  
• Meconium, baby's waste products of pregnancy, start collecting in the intestines now.
  
• At this stage, baby may change position as often as 20 times each hour.

Lanugo which is fine body hair, grows on baby's shoulders, ears, back and forehead.
Looking more and more like Mom and Dad

• With eyelashes beginning to develop and eyebrows are being pencilled in by Mother Nature.
  
• Baby's heartbeat will show on a scan by now and looks like a flashing asterisk on the screen.
  
• Baby's head is very large in proportion to the body, so that brain tissue can grow unimpeded.

My muscles are getting stronger!

• Baby is more active and movements are more vigorous in the womb from this week, as their muscles are becoming increasingly strong.
  
• Baby's hands each have 27 bones, and they are all formed now, movement feels like air bubbles or butterflies but not constant.
  
• Baby can grip index finger and thumb together from now. The skin still looks loose and wrinkled but accumulation of fat will soon start.
  
• Baby's sensory systems develop in a specific order – touch, smell, taste, hearing, vision.

Can you believe baby is yawning, hiccupping, sucking and swallowing? They're twisting, rolling, punching and kicking, too and are big enough that you might be able to feel them doing it!

• Arms and legs are now in perfect proportions.
  
• Baby's immune system is producing its own antibodies.
  
• In female babies the ovaries have already formed millions of eggs.
  
• Baby can be noticed to have a pattern to sleep and wakeful periods.
  
• Little ears are working — your baby can now hear sounds!

• Your baby's sensitive skin is now covered in “Vernix caseosa”, a waxy, white substance that protects baby's skin during the long months in the amniotic fluid.
  
• Nipples have appeared over the breast area by this stage and head circumference on average of16.4 cm.
  
• Baby's eyelids have been closed since about week 10, but now begin to open and close.

I'm Growing!

Baby weighs about 250 grams, with about 6% of the total body weight as fat at this stage.

• Baby can sometimes be seen or felt to move to the sound of its mother's voice. - Quiet music has been found to soothe and settle babies in the womb.
  - Lively, rhythmic music makes a baby more active.
  
• Baby has reached about half its birth length with unique fingerprints completely formed and scalp hair continuing to grow
  
• Usually, unborn babies sleep for 20-40 minutes at a time (occasionally up to 90 minutes), and they don't move when they're asleep.

Congratulations! This week begins the second half of your pregnancy. If you're interested in childbirth classes, now's a good time to start looking for one.

• Baby's growth rate is slowing down, but its organs are still maturing.
  
• If your baby is a boy, their testes have formed but remain in their abdomen.
  
• You may notice stretch marks on your breasts or belly. Your uterus is starting to extend above your navel.

• Baby's length at this stage is about 18cm and weighs a little more than 340g now.
  
• Baby may be furrowing those tiny brows! Your baby is becoming more and more responsive to external stimuli.
  
• Your baby's inner ear is adult size.
  
• The retinas of your baby's eyes are fully developed. Many babies regularly suck their thumbs in pregnancy and are born with callouses.

It's now easier to tell that those little kicks are actually your baby and not just gas bubbles. You may also be feeling warmer than usual and possibly notice some changes in your eyes and vision.

Fine, silky hair called lanugo develops all over baby's body from now, grows in whirling patterns and helps insulate and protect the baby in the womb.

• Amniotic fluid is a pale, straw coloured liquid consisting 99% of water.
  
• Baby sheds skin cells, lanugo and vernix into the amniotic fluid.

Your baby is getting stronger!

• Baby's eyes open and are light sensitive, They blink when startled by loud noises.
  
• The eye and the inner ear develop from the same source cells.
  
• Baby's skin looks less transparent at this stage while body and head are also far more in proportion to each other.
  
• The liver takes up most of the abdominal cavity as liver produces red blood cells.
  
• Testes are present close to the inguinal ring of the groin.

• Dad might be able to hear baby's heart by placing his ear on mom's abdomen.
  
• Baby's nostrils have formed and may open by the end of this week with the spine structure evolving really well.
  
• Most development from now on is about maturing of organs and structures and growth.
  
• A baby's eyes are almost always dark blue or black in the womb and only change from several weeks after birth.

At 26 weeks pregnant, you're rounding the corner of the second trimester and you are almost to the third!

Your baby's beautiful eyes may open this week. Symptoms-wise, you may be struggling more with pregnancy insomnia and clumsiness as your tummy continues to grow.

Baby's sense of smell starts to develop, and they can nod and shake their heads.

Hurrah! Welcome to the last week of the second trimester — the end is near and you can see the light!

• Your baby's heart rate has slowed down a little, to about 140 beats per minute - although this is still super-speedy compared to your own.
  
• Big news: Your baby may recognize both you and your partner's voices by now.
  
• Your baby, on the other hand, is fine-tuning skills of his own … and let's just say your voice is music to his ears.

Your baby is now 32cm long in average and weighs about 1 kilogram now!