Pregnancy Week 15

Your Baby

During the next month, your baby will grow faster than it ever has or ever will.

The rapid and sustained growth experienced by the baby this month enables it to be more agile than before. For example, your baby can now turn its head, open its mouth, and press its lips together. Not bad for somebody who only weighs 28g and stands only 8.5cm tall!

Your baby now displays more sophisticated hand and arm movements, such as making a fist, moving the thumbs, bending the wrists, and grasping. All the body movements that the baby engages in right now are practice for when it’s born. It takes some time for baby to learn how to make his or her muscles make smooth, synchronous movements.

You

By now you may be experiencing some mild swelling in your ankles and feet, because of the effect of gravity on your tissues. Swelling is an important symptom to report to your doctor during routine checkups. Note swelling that occurs in the ankles, feet, hands, and face so you don’t forget.

Even though your baby is moving quite a bit, you still can’t feel the movements because the baby doesn’t bump into the walls of your uterus and doesn’t have much muscle strength. While these movements are visible during an ultrasound examination, you’ll first detect the baby’s movements in another seven weeks or so. It’s ironic that while most mothers really want to feel their baby move and are so pleased when they finally do, those same movements will eventually keep them up at night and bump so hard they’d think their baby was wearing boots.