Welcome to Week 16 of Your Pregnancy!
Your Baby in Week 16 of Pregnancy
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Around week 16 of pregnancy, the fat will start to develop on your baby. Never fear, the fat is a good thing right now! The fat will form all over the body and begin to help that little body regulate its temperature. It will take several weeks to fill in and form a small layer over the entire baby. By the time you are ready to deliver, fat will make up 2-6% of the baby’s total weight. It’s only after you deliver and feed your baby formula or breast milk that those roly-poly adorable fat rolls will develop. Your baby probably won’t come out looking that way, but it’s completely natural when it happens!
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During week 16 of pregnancy, your baby has enough strength and muscle coordination to make a fist. The fist is tiny, and it probably won’t pack any punch yet, but it sure shows signs of growth on your little fetus. The fingers are all formed on each hand and are very skinny, but they won’t work separately yet. Your baby won’t be able to point at you or give you a pinky shake for several weeks after their birth. The fingers still all work as one unit as they grow stronger and as the muscles develop.
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If you are having a little girl, her ovaries develop a little more in week 16 of pregnancy. Between four and six million tiny, unfertilized eggs will form inside the ovaries. The eggs are so tiny, they are not even the size of a pinhead. After those eggs are done forming, she will never develop any more. Even though there are 4 or 6 million eggs to start, your little girl will be down to one or two million by the time she is born. The number will continue to dwindle throughout her lifetime. The eggs will sit in the ovaries for years, waiting until puberty before they are released one or two at a time in to the fallopian tubes.
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The head and neck are growing stronger each day. By week 16 of pregnancy, they will appear even straighter than they were last week. Since your baby is still small and has ample room inside the uterus, it might even look like your baby is sitting straight up. The legs are always curled and pulled in to the chest, but the head and neck can be erect at times throughout the day. It is only as your baby grows and the space gets more crowded that they have to curl their neck and tuck back inside of a ball.
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Your baby’s little heart is working overtime right now in wek 16 of pregnancy! It is fully developed and now has the capacity to pump blood through the circulatory system. Every day, that little heart and those vessels will pump and circulate over six galloons of blood! In order to move that much volume each day, their heart is pumping on average double of what your heart rate is.
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Even though your little peanut is, well, little, he or she will still begin to sleep at regular intervals at week 16 of pregnancy. This isn’t to say though that those intervals will coincide with yours, as many moms can attest! Every baby is different, but they may sleep for eight hours during the day and be up for eight hours at night. They may take little naps every hour. They may sleep for three hour periods and be awake for six hour periods. The point is, they are developing their own sleep pattern which may continue long after their birth.
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Even though that little baby is immersed in amniotic fluid, it has still learned to breathe by week 16 of pregnancy. This will be evident by the rise and fall of their chest, which can be picked up during an ultrasound. They have the ability to “breathe” with the oxygen rich mixture of amniotic fluid and function just fine. Since they were conceived and developed in the fluid, they don’t have a problem being in the fluid. They will not drown and they will not develop gills! Your little baby is working to condition their lungs for life outside of the uterus with each inhale and exhale movement.
- Your baby’s face will begin to show noticeable expressions in week 16 of pregnancy. They may frown, squint or even smile. Their face muscles are developing and while some of the movements are reflexive, they are becoming more pronounced. If you were to peek in on your baby during the day, you would also be able to catch them sucking and swallowing via an ultrasound. The movements may be small, but the muscles are learning to coordinate together so that they can suckle immediately after birth.
Your Body in Week 16 of Pregnancy
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During week 16 of pregnancy, if you haven’t already, you may want to think about saving the cord blood from your baby. There are a few methods to choose from, but basically the doctor will collect blood from the placenta after your delivery and save it. There are also companies that focus solely on storing cord blood until you need to use it.
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Saving cord blood is a relatively new process developed during the 1990s, but researchers believe that if your child ever developed a blood disorder, the cord blood can be used to fight or eliminate the disease. Researchers have shown great results with stem cell and bone marrow transplants used from the cord blood, but you’ll want to talk with your doctor if it’s something that interests you.
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One of the most exciting aspects of pregnancy might happen to you during week 16 of pregnancy. Do you seem to have a lot of feelings of minor gas or indigestion? Guess what – it might not be gas after all. It might actually be “quickening”, which is the ability to feel your baby fluttering inside of you! If you lie still, you may feel the movements come and go. Certain activities might make the movements pick up – like eating sweets, after exercise, or when you are resting.
- The only bummer about quickening is that it probably won’t be strong enough for your significant other to feel it yet. For now…it’s a gift between mom and baby. But don’t worry, it will only be a few more weeks before others will be able to feel the kicks.
- If you were to have an ultrasound in week 16 of pregnancy, a good ultrasound technician could tell what sex your baby is if the baby cooperates. However, the best ultrasound technician can never say they are 100% sure, since a movement or a finger can cause a false reading.
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