26 Weeks Pregnant

Measuring your baby from top to toe with her legs extended, she is probably about 36cm. She weighs a little more than 760g. Your baby's eyes begin to open around now. Her response to sound grows more consistent towards the end of the seventh month, when the network of nerves to her ears is complete. She may be able to hear you and your partner chatting. Your baby also continues to take small breaths, getting plenty of practice for when she's born. It's all preparation for when she takes that first gulp of air.

- BabyCentre.co.uk

Look who's looking. Your baby's eyes — which have been closed for the past few months (so that the retina, the part of the eye that allows images to come into focus, could develop) — are beginning to open at 26 weeks pregnant. What this means is that your baby is able to see what's going on now (unfortunately the view in your uterus isn't all that exciting). But do try this at home for kicks (baby's that is): Shine a flashlight at your stomach. Your baby might kick in response (as in: "Get that light out of my eyes!").
 
The iris, the colored part of the eye, still doesn't have much pigmentation (that'll fill in over the next month or two), so it's too early to start guessing your baby's eye color. Even the color your baby will be born with might not be the permanent shade; so you may be kept guessing until your baby is close to six months old.

Look what else is going on this week: Your baby's brain-wave activity is kicking in at this stage in fetal development, which means your little one can not only hear noises but can now also respond to them. Not in so many words, of course, but with an increase in pulse rate or activity. And talking about activity, at your baby's current height and weight (about nine inches tall and two pounds), and at the rate he or she is growing, your baby will soon be feeling a little cramped in your uterus. Not to worry, there's still plenty of room for your baby to grow. It just means your gymnast will have less room for those somersaults, cartwheels, and other Olympic feats.

At 26 weeks pregnant, you're two-thirds of the way through your pregnancy and your uterus is about two and a half inches above your belly button. And speaking of your belly button, have you noticed that it's taken on a life of its own — a larger-than-life life? A protruding navel may not be your idea of forward fashion (especially when you have a belly piercing, or when your once innie belly button now bulges through tight clothes), but it's de rigueur for the pregnant set. And it's easy to understand why. Beginning somewhere around the middle to end of your second trimester, your enlarging uterus swells enough to push your abdomen forward, making your navel pop out like a timer on a well-done turkey (even though you have a way to go before your baby is "well done"). Your belly button should revert back to its regular position a few months after delivery — (though it may have that stretched-out, "lived in" look). Until then, you can look at the bright side of your protruding navel: it gives you a chance to clean out all the lint that's accumulated there since you were a kid.

- WhatToExpect.com
 

25 Weeks Pregnant

 

Your baby now weighs nearly 660g and is about 35cm long from crown to heel. He's beginning to exchange his long, lean look for some baby fat. As he does, his wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and he'll start to look more like a newborn. His senses are becoming more sophisticated, too. At 26 weeks, fetal brain scans show response to touch. If you shine a light on your belly, your baby will turn his head, which means his optic nerve is working.

- BabyCentre.co.uk

This week your baby’s dexterity starts to improve, which means he can curl his fingers into a fist or grab the umbilical cord. In his gums his adult teeth are starting to form, but won’t appear until his milk teeth fall out around age six. By 25 weeks your baby’s brainwave patterns are similar to what they will be when he is born, which means he is already developing a primitive memory. Keep singing and talking to your baby because he will remember and become familiar with your voice or the songs you play him in the womb.

- Gurgle.com

At nine inches and more than a pound and a half in weight, your baby is taller than two juice boxes stacked one on top of the other, and almost as heavy as four of those little boxes (an analogy you'll find particularly apropos in a few years, when those juice boxes start taking over your refrigerator, your pantry, your car.…).
 
Don't look now (as if you could), but your baby's skin is turning pinker. No, not because he or she's getting overheated (in fact, the amniotic fluid is perfectly climate controlled, keeping your baby at an always comfortable temperature), but because small blood vessels, called capillaries, are forming under the skin and filling with blood. Later this week, blood vessels will also develop in your baby's lungs, bringing them one step closer to full maturity — and one step closer to taking that first breath of fresh air. But at 25 weeks pregnant, those lungs are still very much works in progress. Though they are already beginning to develop surfactant, a substance that will help the lungs expand after the baby is born, the lungs are still too undeveloped to sufficiently send oxygen to the bloodstream and release carbon dioxide when he or she exhales.

The lungs aren't the only system that's gearing up for air intake. Your baby's nostrils, which have been plugged up until now, are starting to open this week. This actually allows your little one to begin taking practice breaths. (Of course since there's no air in there, your baby is really only "breathing" amniotic fluid, but it's the practice that counts, right?)

- WhatToExpect.com