Week 22
Your baby is about 26.7 cm (10.5 in) long from crown to heel and weighs about 360 g (12.5 oz). Babies vary, and your baby may be a little ahead of or behind these figures. The skin is still thin and wrinkled, eyebrows and eyelashes are filling in, and small hands are learning to grip. You may be feeling stronger, clearer movements, and perhaps the first painless tightenings of your uterus. The extra blood volume and pressure from your growing bump can also show up in your veins, in your legs and lower down. This week covers those tightenings, veins and hemorrhoids, the start of planning parental leave, and the simple pleasure of talking and singing to your baby.
Day 148 · 21 weeks 0 days
Tiny hands are learning to hold on
Your baby's sense of touch is developing fast. Nerve endings in the skin are connecting to the brain, and your baby now reaches out to explore the space around them. On a scan, babies at this stage can be seen touching their face, sucking a thumb, and holding the umbilical cord.
The grasp is getting stronger. When the palm is touched, the fingers curl around, an early version of the reflex that will make your newborn grip your finger. Fingernails are growing, and ridges that will become unique fingerprints are already in place.
The face is filling in too. Eyebrows and eyelashes are visible, though the hair is pale because pigment has not arrived yet. The eyelids are still fused shut, and they will open in a few weeks. Under the protective coating of vernix you read about earlier, the skin is red and loose, because there is not yet much fat beneath it. That will change steadily from now until birth. Try this: Next time you feel a flurry of movement, picture a hand reaching for the cord or brushing a cheek, and see whether it changes how the movement feels to you.
Day 149 · 21 weeks 1 day
Practice contractions may begin
From around now, some people notice their belly tightening and going hard for 30 seconds or so, then relaxing. These are Braxton Hicks contractions, sometimes called practice contractions. The muscle of the uterus is flexing, and it may be toning itself for the work ahead. They often feel like a squeezing or tightening across the bump rather than pain. They are irregular, they do not get closer together, and they usually fade if you change what you are doing. Some people feel them often; others barely notice them until late in pregnancy. Both are normal. Common triggers include being active, a full bladder, sex, dehydration and the baby moving. If you notice one, try drinking a glass of water, emptying your bladder, or switching from standing to lying on your side, or the other way around.
Before 37 weeks, regular tightenings are a different matter. Call your care provider if tightenings come regularly, four or more in an hour, or with lower back ache, pelvic pressure, cramps, bleeding, or watery or increased discharge. You will read more about the signs of early labour next week. Try this: If you feel your belly harden today, note the time and what you were doing, so you start to learn your own pattern.
Day 150 · 21 weeks 2 days
Why your veins may be more visible
Pregnancy raises the amount of blood in your body by up to half. Hormones relax the walls of your veins, and the weight of your uterus presses on the large veins in your pelvis. Together, these can make the veins in your legs swell and twist. These are varicose veins, and they tend to run in families.
They can look blue or purple and feel achy, heavy or itchy, especially at the end of the day. Some people also get them in the vulva, which can feel like fullness or pressure. Spider veins, fine red lines on the face, chest or legs, are also common and harmless.
You cannot always prevent them, but you can ease them. Avoid standing or sitting still for long periods. Put your feet up when you rest, and avoid crossing your legs. Walking and swimming help the calf muscles pump blood upward. Graduated compression stockings, put on in the morning before swelling builds, can make a real difference; ask your care provider which kind suits you.
Most varicose veins improve within a few months after birth.
Get help right away if a vein becomes hard, hot, red and painful, or one leg swells suddenly, as these can be signs of a clot.
Try this: Before getting out of bed tomorrow, try putting on compression stockings, or if you do not have any, flex and point your feet 20 times.
Day 151 · 21 weeks 3 days
Your voice is already familiar
As you read a few weeks ago, your baby can now hear sounds from inside and outside the uterus. Your voice is the clearest of all, because it travels through your body as well as through the air. Studies show that newborns prefer their parent's voice to a stranger's, and they can recognize stories and songs they heard often before birth.
That makes talking and singing a simple way to connect. There is nothing to learn and nothing you have to achieve. Telling your baby about your day, reading aloud, or humming along to the radio all count. If talking to a bump feels awkward, start with a song you already know by heart. Some families choose one particular song or rhyme to repeat often in the last months. After birth, it can become a familiar sound for settling, in the car, at bedtime or during a bath.
There is no evidence that playing music through headphones on the belly makes babies smarter, and loud sound pressed against the bump is best avoided. Your ordinary voice is enough.
For your partner: Choose a short song or book and share it with the baby tonight, close to the bump. Your voice will be one of the sounds your baby hears most after birth.
Day 152 · 21 weeks 4 days
Start planning your parental leave now
Rules on parental leave and pay differ widely between countries, employers and job types. Some people have months of paid leave; others have very little. Whatever your situation, finding out the details early gives you time to plan and avoids surprises.
Questions worth answering now include: How much leave can each parent take, and when can it start? Is any of it paid, and by whom? How much notice do you need to give, and in what form? Can leave be shared or split, or taken part-time? Is your job protected while you are away? If you are self-employed or work on contract, are there benefits you can apply for? Your employer's human resources team, your union, or your government's benefits office can answer most of these. Write down what you learn and any deadlines. Some benefits require you to apply within a set time, and missing it can cost you.
It is also worth thinking about your partner's leave, and how you might share the early weeks. Many families find that having two adults at home, even briefly, makes the start much easier.
Try this: Find your employer's parental leave policy, or your local benefits website, and note the date by which you must tell your employer or apply.
Day 153 · 21 weeks 5 days
Hemorrhoids are common and treatable
The same pressure and relaxed veins that cause varicose veins in the legs can cause swollen veins around the anus. These are hemorrhoids, also called piles. They can itch, ache or sting, and they may bleed a little, usually bright red blood on the toilet paper. Constipation, which is common in pregnancy, makes them worse.
The most helpful step is keeping your stools soft. Eat plenty of fibre from vegetables, fruit, beans, lentils and whole grains, and drink water through the day. Stay active. Go to the toilet when you feel the urge, and do not strain or sit there for long. A small footstool under your feet can make passing a stool easier.
For relief, try a warm shallow bath, cool compresses, or gentle cleaning with water or unscented wipes instead of dry paper. Some creams and suppositories are suitable in pregnancy, but check with your pharmacist or care provider before you use one, and ask about a stool softener if constipation persists.
Hemorrhoids often improve after birth, though pushing can make them flare for a while.
Call your care provider if you have more than a small amount of bleeding, severe pain, or a hard, painful lump.
Try this: Add one high-fibre food to each meal today, such as oats at breakfast, beans at lunch and an extra vegetable at dinner.
Day 154 · 21 weeks 6 days
Your baby is making their own insulin
Your baby's pancreas has been forming since early pregnancy, and by now it is producing insulin, the hormone that moves sugar from the blood into the body's cells. Your baby's main fuel is glucose, which crosses the placenta from your bloodstream.
Your body is changing how it handles sugar to make sure there is enough to go around. Placental hormones make your own cells a little less responsive to insulin as pregnancy goes on, so more glucose stays in your blood for longer after you eat. In most people, the pancreas simply makes more insulin to keep blood sugar in a healthy range.
In some people, the pancreas cannot keep up, and blood sugar rises higher than it should. This is gestational diabetes. When it happens, extra glucose reaches the baby, who makes extra insulin in response and can grow larger than expected. That is why your care provider offers a blood sugar test in the second half of pregnancy, usually between 24 and 28 weeks. You will read about the test and what a result means next week. Try this: Ask at your next appointment, or check your notes, when your glucose screening test is planned, and whether you need to fast beforehand.