Womb to Bloom - Maternity & Beyond

Your Baby in Week 26 of Pregnancy

• During week 26 of pregnancy, your baby would be able to respond to your touch. The nerve endings throughout most of his or her body have become sensitive and would feel even the slightest touch. Your baby would notice a stroke of their cheek, a touch on the leg, or even a rub on the head. Depending on whether or not they were sound asleep or wide awake and active, their reaction will vary. If sleeping, babies will usually only react to touch with a reflexive movement, such as a hand curl or a leg twitch. If they are awake, they may turn their head to get a closer look at what was touching them.
  

• The eyes have formed in more detail behind the eyelids by week 26 of pregnancy. Their focus will still be way off, as babies are only born with 20/400 sight! After they are born, they can recognize light and dark, and outlines to shapes, but not any details to things yet. Your baby will rely on their other senses to help identify objects in the first few weeks and months after birth - like touch and smell.
  

• The taste buds on the tongue are growing in week 26 of pregnancy. Even though it may not seem like there is much to taste in the uterus, your baby is getting a small sampling of tastes by the foods your system has processed. They already know bitter and sweet, but they may now be able to identify spicy, garlic, salty, bland and other spices or flavors. They could even begin to develop a favorite taste, without even having tried the food for themselves!
  

• After your baby is born, they will eat “bland” foods like breast milk and formula for several months before they can even try other foods. Once they do get cereal and baby food, they will react strongly to the taste and texture of the food. Make sure to take pictures of their reaction!
  

• The eyelashes begin to grow out of the ends of the eyelids during week 26 of pregnancy. At first, they look like tiny spikes shooting out of the bottom of the skin, but then they continue to grow longer pretty quickly, definitely looking like eyelashes by the end of the week. They will get a little longer over the next couple of weeks and be their true length by birth. The eyelashes probably won’t have much pigmentation yet either, so they will be clear for several more weeks or even months after your baby is born. As your baby ages, the pigment will grow darker in the hair follicles if they are to have dark or red colored hair.
  

• Your baby’s brain begins intensive development for hearing and vision in week 26 of pregnancy. The sections of the brain that specialize on these senses will rapidly form and connect with each other and the other senses’ sections. Since the eyes have grown and are working on becoming complete, the brain has to work to catch up to their progress so they can coordinate with each other.
  

• Since the ear is almost completely developed, the sense of hearing will grow in the brain so that the brain can identify noise sources around week 26 of pregnancy. For instance, if your baby hears you vacuum right now, they will know it as a noise. But when they actually see you vacuum after they are born, they will be able to connect the noise to that funny looking machine. We may take all of these processes for granted but they are very complex for your baby to learn!
  

• Your baby’s lungs now have the capability to inhale, exhale and even cry at week 26 of pregnancy. If your baby were to be born now, however, they would require a lot of help because the lungs aren’t yet mature enough to breathe outside your uterus. The breathing they are doing in the amniotic fluid is making the lungs stronger, and each breath is a practice breath for when they are born. Every day that they remain in your uterus will give them that much more time to practice and become stronger.
  

• The lungs begin to secrete a substance called surfactant during week 26 of pregnancy. The surfactant is gooey and sticky and will form around all of the alveoli, or air sacs, to help them function better. The surfactant and the lungs are very complex and intricate so just know that every day your baby remains inside and growing is a good thing for the lungs!