Pregnancy Week 14

Your Baby

Your baby’s hand is becoming more and more functional. The baby is beginning to move its thumb in opposition to the other fingers.

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 development of the air sacs within the lungs.

Baby’s arms have almost reached their final proportions relative to body size, but the legs are still quite short.

Your baby is now quite active and his or her muscle responses have been changed from mechanical and puppetlike to smooth and fluid, like a newborn’s. Remember that at the end of the second month, the baby measured about 27mm in length and weighed about 1g. Now, he or she is 3 times as long and more than 50 times as heavy!

You

Are you still experiencing bloating, indigestion, and heartburn after meals? Continue to watch what you eat, but try to eat smaller portions more frequently. One thing that happens during pregnancy is that the circular sphincter muscle that closes off the stomach from the esophagus relaxes and permits food and stomach acid back into the esophagus. The result is a burning sensation in the vicinity of your heart called heartburn (obviously, this sensation has nothing to do with your heart). If there is less food in your stomach, there is less to backwash into your esophagus, so you might feel more comfortable. Also, eat slowly, avoid lying down 1-2 hours after eating, and drink fluids mainly between meals.