Inside Your Body

Your baby is now about the size of an apple (10cm) and weighs  about 65g.  Isn’t it strange that we are comparing your baby with nuts and now fruit?   He/she is making normal breathing motion, however, the lungs are still not developed enough to survive independently in the outside world. Your baby continues to lengthen his/her legs and body and is looking like a baby day by day.

Furthermore, your baby is developing its taste buds through the tongue and is becoming sensitive to light. In fact, if you flash light on your tummy, your baby will react and try to avoid the light.  Test it the next time you visit the doctor.  You can see your wonderful baby’s natural reflexes.

Your Signs And Symptoms

You may experience mild symptoms like constipation caused by hormonal effects on your digestive system.  You may also have other minor issues such as backache, which is caused by your expanding uterus, or nose-bleeds or stuffed nose due to the increased flow of blood in your nasal membranes. You will also experience breathlessness at times as your hormones clash with your respiration system.  It also doesn’t help when your uterus is growing and pushing against your lungs.  Most of the time, these symptoms are very trivial and do not warrant any treatment.

What Tests To Expect

If you want to find out your baby’s gender, you will soon be able to.  This is done via an ultrasound scan during the 4th-5th month, as external genitals that have developed may help sonologists to determine if your baby is a boy or girl.  Although you may wish to be surprised on the delivery day, you should consider the benefits of knowing earlier:

• Getting the baby room and furniture ready with the right colour scheme and style.
• Shopping for a whole wardrobe for  your baby.
• You may get a sense of greater intimacy and affection with your baby if you call him/her by his/her name or refer your baby by his/her gender even before they are born. 
• If this is not your first pregnancy, you can prepare older siblings by counselling them about the arrival of their baby brother or baby sister.

Yet some mothers want to keep it a surprise for themselves and their families and especially request doctors not to disclose the news. Whatever your case is, inform your doctor clearly about your wishes.  By the way, it is not always easy to tell the gender, as it largely depends on the position of the baby and clarity of the scan.  False interpretations have happened before.