12 Amazing facts about your unborn baby
When you're feeling sick, exhausted, not to mention enormous, it can be easy to forget just how amazing it is to be pregnant.
So, in case it hasn't registered with you, or you need reminding, here are 12 AMAZING things you may not have realized, about what's happening inside you, right now!
-
Your baby has facial hair
Strange as it sounds, every baby develops a fine mustache while in the womb. This fine hair (called lanugo) gradually spreads all over their body. Finally (since it's shed into the amniotic fluid) your baby will actually 'eat' it, then excrete it out after it's born when it first does a poo (a substance called meconium). Sounds delightful!
-
Your baby is growing more bones than you
By the time your baby is born, it will have 300 bones in that tiny body – but adults only have 206! The bones in your baby's body will fuse together to create the adult number.
-
Your baby is growing more bones than you
By the time your baby is born, it will have 300 bones in that tiny body – but adults only have 206! The bones in your baby's body will fuse together to create the adult number.
-
Your baby's heart is incredible
On average, it takes only one month for a baby to develop and start using its heart from conception. Amazing!
-
He can already cry
Babies cry in the womb – this starts at about 26 weeks from conception. Don't worry, as crying is an important communication tool for babies, it's understandable they are honing their technique before they enter the world!
-
He thinks you're hilarious
Though they can’t laugh, they do seem to respond to their mum’s laughter by bouncing up and down. This happens from about 32 weeks from conception.
-
You might make him jump
From about 23 weeks, your baby can be startled by sudden noises such as your sneezing. What's more, a new study by doctors at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in New York City has revealed that mobile phone ringing may surprise and even annoy their unborn babies.
-
Your baby is learning a language
Amazingly, babies pick up the rhythms and intonations of their mother language in the womb. Experts reckon you can even spot the difference between the developing languages of babies from their gurgles!
-
He might be a dreamer
Babies start to sleep from 4 weeks after conception. But what's more, the REM sleep waves associated with the eye movements of dreams have been identified by 30 weeks after conception. So your little one might even be having a dream or two.
-
He can smell the same things you can
If you can smell something whiffy, you baby probably can too. Its suggested that from about 28 weeks, your baby can smell the same things as you. Babies at this stage can be seen grimacing and moving around when things get whiffy.
-
Your baby already loves sweet things
We know that babies can detect flavors in the womb as a food you eat can alter the flavor of amniotic fluid. But from 15 weeks, babies have shown a preference for sweet flavors by swallowing more fluid when it's sweet and less when it's bitter.
-
He doesn't have knee caps
Your baby won’t develop knee caps in the womb. Babies are born without knee caps, and will develop them after birth, usually at around 6 months.