Pregnancy Facts - Week 15
Your baby's development in week 15 of pregnancy
Your baby's eyes can now sense light. Here's an experiment for you to try. If you shine a bright light onto your tummy, your baby may react to it by kicking you. Now, shine a light into your partner's eyes. They too may kick you in reaction. Isn't that amazing?
While light can be sensed, your baby's eyes still can't actually see. The eyelids are still a sheet of skin that fully covers the eyes and they won't develop a slit until week 25.
The little nub of a nose on your baby's face is now breathing in amniotic fluid into tiny air sacs that will one day become full-fledged lungs.
The roof of your baby's mouth has developed and so have the lips. Combined with facial muscles that are now functioning, your baby is attempting to unlock thumb sucking as a skill. If you're lucky, you may even catch your baby doing it during an ultrasound.
How big is your baby in week 15 of pregnancy
This week, your baby measures 4.0 inches (10.1 centimeters) and weighs 2.5 ounces (70 grams).
What's happening in week 15 of pregnancy
Your bump may be showing through your clothes now as your womb continues to grow and push out just above your pelvis.
You may feel contraction-like movement in your body at around this week. It's most likely Braxton-Hicks contractions, which is just your body's own form of a "fire drill" to ensure it knows what to do when the baby's ready to evacuate the premise, so to speak.
Colostrum, a protein and antibody-rich fluid that will be your baby's first taste of food if breastfed, is starting to be produced by the mammary glands in the breast. Not to be outdone, the milk ducts in your breast are also starting up its production lines to generate the first drops of milk.
You're probably feeling hungrier these days what with the growing human inside you and all. Just remember, it's eating for two, not eating like two. Consuming 200 extra calories a day is enough to keep your baby happy.
One positive side effect to all those crazy hormones pumping through your body is a thicker, fuller and shinier head of hair.
