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Week 24: Look ma, my ears can hear!

Fetal development in pregnancy week 24

~length
11.8 in | 30 cm

~weight
1.3 lbs | 590 g

It's another week full of exciting developments for your magical growing baby!

Just take a look at the checklist for this week: 1) ears: done; 2) fingernails: done; 3) (if you have a boy) testicles: taking their 3-4 day trip from the abdominal wall to the scrotum; and 4) lungs walls: secreting “surfactant”.

What’s surfactant? It's basically what it sounds like: a surface-activated fat that helps your baby's little lungs inflate (where inflate = fill with air not get more expensive for no understandable reason).

In the meantime, your submerged baby is still breathing in their amniotic fluid (and a bit of pee), preparing and rehearsing their lungs for an oxygen-filled life outside the womb.

By the end of this week, your wee womb-squatter will be weighing in at a whopping 2 lbs and 14 inches long.

All this new weight means your tiny baby is actually starting to fill out their skin, but they're not anywhere near their adorable fat-baby potential.

Most of the fetal “filling out” is coming up in that long awaited (and slightly dreaded?) third trimester. Woo-hoo! Get ready!

Share your baby's development on Facebook!

MY BABY'S PROGRESS: WEEK 24

Only 16 more weeks to go

My 2 pound baby's checklist for the week: 1) ears: done; 2) fingernails: done; 3) toe nails: done; 4) eyebrows and lashes: done, 5) lungs walls: secreting "surfactant" - a surface-activated fat on their ...

Tuesday at 19:16 via Baby Gaga · Comment · Like

Cindy

Week 24 Calendar Girl

May 2013

Enter my photo!

And how's mom doing?

Your little one is moving (spinning, kicking, pirouetting, shimmying, and maybe even doing a bit of the Can-Can) so much these days that if you invite your friends and/or family to touch your belly there’s a good chance they’ll get a milder sample of what you’ve been experiencing.We recommend taking the belly-touching calmly and if it really offends you, just say something like: “I just fell in a large vat of anthrax.”

You may be feeling as if you've got a sign on your forehead that says, "Please touch my belly and ask how far along I am right now!"

For some obnoxious-yet-confusing reason, a visibly pregnant belly is often treated as public property and a silent invitation for belly touching.

We recommend taking the belly-touching calmly and if it really offends you, just say something like: “I just fell in a large vat of anthrax.” Or perhaps something a little less aggressive, like, “Please, at the very least, ask me before touching my body.”

There are of course many women who enjoy sharing this touching ritual with others. Find your comfort zone and good luck with the rest.