How Much Does a Baby Move at 18 Weeks
Noticing a rumbling in your tum?
It could be pregnancy hunger pangs — or it could exist the very first signs of fetal movement, which tin can happen at around week 18 of pregnancy.
Your Baby at Calendar week 18
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At 18 weeks, your little chick is about the same size as that craven chest on your dinner plate — about five inches long and five ounces in weight.
But don't let his small size fool you — at that place are large goings-on in that little torso of his this calendar week. Meconium — your infant's first poop — is slowly starting to accumulate in his bowels. If your babe's a male child, his prostate gland is forming. And both girl and male child babies at present officially sport finger and toe prints. Those tiny swirls and wrinkles marking your baby as uniquely himself from here on out… though there's probably fiddling demand to tell you how especially unique your babe is!
Under major structure now is your baby's nervous system. That'southward the network that coordinates your cutie'southward every move. Correct now your babe's encephalon, spinal cord, and fretfulness go a boost from myelin, a substance that coats the nerves and speeds upwardly the fourth dimension it takes for messages to travel between nerve cells.
Myelin too helps babe's nerves form more than circuitous connections, enabling your teeny mover and shaker to perfect more than intricate moves such equally sucking a thumb, clasping easily, and crimper his fingers effectually the umbilical cord.
And guess what, momma! Somebody's listening to you. Baby's ears have arrived at their final destination — the sides of his head — and the tiny bones within the inner ear take hardened, allowing your baby to hear some sounds, including the sweetness audio of your voice! At present hear this: thanks to all the time they spend listening to it in utero, studies show that babies are able to identify their mom's vox right after birth. Keep that in listen the side by side time you lot serenade your womb with your lullabies…or rock out in the shower. Your little one is all ears!
At a Glance
Tiny fingerprints
Your one-of-a-kind baby is truly i of a kind now, with unique fingerprints on those trivial fingertips and toes.
Nervus protection
Myelin, a protective insulation, is starting to class around baby-to-be's nerves. This covering continues to abound until your baby'south start birthday.
Girl and male child parts defined
Having a girl? The fallopian tubes and uterus are now in proper position. A boy? Genitals may be visible on your adjacent ultrasound.
18 weeks meaning is how many months?
If you're 18 weeks pregnant, you're in calendar month v of your pregnancy. Only 4 months left to go! Still take questions? Here'due south some more information on how weeks, months and trimesters are broken downwards in pregnancy.
How big is my baby at 18 weeks?
At five½ inches long from crown to rump and 5 to 6½ ounces in weight — about the size of that boneless chicken chest y'all're making for dinner — your baby may be big enough now or anytime in the side by side few weeks for yous to feel twisting, rolling, kicking and punching in the womb.
Baby is yawning
At present for the skill of the week: The art of the yawn has been mastered past your infant, along with hiccupping, which you may feel before long, too!
In fact, you might take hold of a glimpse of that adorable yawn and all those other fetal movements at your ultrasound this month.
Baby'south nervous system is maturing rapidly
Something you won't see on the ultrasound — but you'll larn is in working order — is your baby'southward nervous system, which is maturing chop-chop when yous're 18 weeks pregnant.
A network of nerves, now covered with a substance called myelin that helps speed messages from nervus cell to nerve prison cell, are forming more complex connections.
And those in the brain are further developing into the ones that serve the senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing.
Speaking of hearing, your infant's is growing more than acute and infant tin finally fully hear you this calendar week, making your footling one more conscious of sounds that come from within your body. Meaning you lot could both exist listening to each other hiccup!
Your Body at Week xviii
Quick growth
Is it a girl? A boy? How about a sizeable fruit or vegetable? At 18 weeks, your infant is about the length of a cucumber and your uterus is around the size of a sugariness white potato — see how y'all're working your way through the produce department? It can be felt nigh i½ inches beneath your bellybutton — so take a feel.
How Big Are 18-Week Bumps?
Your xviii weeks meaning belly
When you're xviii weeks pregnant, you'll likely look noticeably significant, since your infant and uterus are growing chop-chop. But remember that every woman is different every bit is each pregnancy, so fifty-fifty this far along, some still have small bumps while others have popped a lot.
All baby bumps at 18 weeks pregnant are fine and normal and may vary based on how much weight you and babe are gaining, your superlative and build, and whether this is your beginning pregnancy or non.
Only don't size up your 18 weeks meaning belly next to those of significant friends at the same stage, or worry that yous're measuring too big or too small. If you lot're really concerned, you can always talk to your practitioner, but rest bodacious that if you and your baby are tracking normally at your prenatal appointments, everything is probable but fine.
Your back aches
Something else you may be feeling correct now: back pain. Your growing uterus shifts your center of gravity — which means your lower back is pulled forrard while your abdomen is thrust out — adept for tipping off the person who got the terminal seat on the charabanc that y'all're pregnant, bad for your back muscles.
Couple that with the changes that the pregnancy hormone relaxin is instituting — namely relaxing all your ligaments, including those that attach your pelvic bones to your spine, and loosening joints — and that leaves you with backaches and pains, not to mention a shifting posture.
Reduce pain past using a foot residual to elevate your feet slightly when sitting. When standing, place one foot on a low stool when possible to take some pressure off your lower back. A long, warm bath can also practise wonders. And if your back hurting just won't quit, be sure to talk to your practitioner.
Reducing heartburn
Forget the burrito with actress jalapeños — sometimes even a bite of toast volition fix your gut on fire these days. That's the problem with heartburn — an all-too-common symptom that can persist throughout your pregnancy. An ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of Tums — although you might want to proceed those handy, as well, since they'll banish the burn down while boosting your calcium intake.
For starters, eat slowly and chew thoroughly. Try not to eat lunch on the run or gobble your dinner standing up, and eat smaller meals and snacks rather than 5-alarm gut bombs.
After you lot stop eating, sit upright for a few hours, or equally long equally yous can last without collapsing into bed, and sleep with your head elevated, which also helps with the snoring. And practise skip anything on the menu with a picture of a flame adjacent to it!
Pregnancy Symptoms Week 18
Fetal move
Bloating and gas
Leg cramps
Bleeding gums
Edema (swelling in feet and ankles)
Stretch marks
Tips for You This Week
Don't make whatever sudden moves
During pregnancy, progesterone increases the flow of claret to your baby, resulting in lower blood force per unit area and reduced claret flow to your brain — giving you lot that faint feeling all over.
To help stave off dizziness, e'er stand up up from a sitting or lying position slowly.
Interview pediatricians
At present'south a slap-up fourth dimension in your pregnancy to interview potential pediatricians. After all, there'southward a good chance that the doctor volition starting time see your baby within 24 hours of your little one'southward birth.
And then ask a lot of questions before you brand your selection and broach topics similar appointment availability, hospital affiliations, vaccines and circumcision.
Fourth dimension for relaxin?
Unfortunately, nosotros don't hateful "relaxing." During the second trimester, your body releases relaxin, a hormone that (as the name implies) loosens the ligaments that hold your bones together. The result: an achy pelvis and hips — and maybe even bigger feet!
You may be cursing this pregnancy hormone now, just when you're trying to button out your baby's big head, you'll be thanking relaxin for doing its job.
Pump iron
Fifty-fifty red-meat eaters tin accept a difficult fourth dimension getting enough iron from their diets. If yous're someone who sticks to constitute-based foods, you'll have to double your efforts to pump upwards the iron — vegan and vegetarian moms-to-exist accept a college risk for fe-deficiency anemia.
Foods like beans, soy products, oat bran, barley, pumpkin seeds, dried fruits, spinach, seaweed, Jerusalem artichokes and blackstrap molasses all accept some atomic number 26 in them, simply you lot may also need to accept an fe supplement to make sure you're coming together your daily quota. Ask your practitioner whether that's the instance.
Be wary of supplements
Herbal supplements do brand the most tempting of promises — especially when pregnancy leaves you with few self-medicating options. Would information technology really hurt to popular a couple of ginkgo biloba capsules to give your brain cells a fighting risk of remembering to pay this month'southward electric neb? After all, the bottles say "all natural"…and y'all did buy them at the health food store.
Really, it could hurt — peculiarly now that you're sharing those pills with a niggling someone else. Herbs and herbal remedies are not tested or canonical past the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prior to going on the market and are non required to undergo clinical trials, so their safety, or lack thereof, is unknown.
Even supplements that y'all've heard could be helpful could actually be harmful at different points during your pregnancy — by causing premature labor if taken too early, for instance.
And a number of herbs — such as basil oil, black or blueish cohosh, clove oil, sassafras, wild yam and many others — tin can exist downright dangerous if taken someday during pregnancy. Be safe and bank check with your practitioner before y'all pop any pill.
Avert some workout moves
Certain exercises may piece of work great for the non-meaning prepare, but now that you're expecting, don't even remember about trying them.
Only say no to upside-down "bicycles," shoulder stands, or flat-on-your-dorsum positions after the fourth month.
As well off-limits: deep-knee bends, dorsum bends, jumping and billowy.
Get ready for tiny kicks
Yous'll probably find baby's first petty kicks someday between weeks 18 and 22 — and sometimes as late as weeks 23 or 24 for first-time pregnancies.
Those tiny feet can exist felt in many different ways: every bit the merest palpitate, the most insistent slug or gas bubbles that aren't gas at all.
As for when and how you'll experience your babe move? Several factors come up into play: a mom's size (the slimmer yous are, the more likely yous'll feel movements earlier); your muscle tone (the laxer the uterine muscles, the easier it is to feel those kicks — which is why 2d-timers by and large feel them sooner); and the baby'southward position (it'due south trickier to notice move when your baby kicks facing in).
An wrong due date can also throw off the recognition of those monumental first kicks. Don't worry: There'south no mistaking the real matter one time your baby gets the technique downward — and gets large enough to pack a serious punch.
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Source: https://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/week-by-week/week-18.aspx
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