24 Weeks Pregnant

You are now moving into your 7th month of your pregnancy when you start your 24th week. This means that you are 2/3rds of the way to delivering your baby.  Your bundle of joy is getting ready for his or her life on the outside and is making great strides to getting there.

By week 24 of pregnancy, your little one will be approximately 8.4 inches in length and will weigh around 1.4 pounds. You can expect your baby to gain around 6 ounces this week and each week here after. The weight your baby is gaining will be mainly muscle, organs, tissues and bone mass. By the end of the week, your baby may tip the scales at a whopping 1.5 pounds. At this point in your pregnancy, your baby has a basic control over his or her senses such as: vision, touch, taste, smell and hearing.  You baby can also swallow as well. The head of your baby may seem a bit large in comparison with its body right now but it will all even out.

Here is a breakdown of some of the progress your baby has made:

    The inner ear of your baby is fully developed

    The blood vessels that are in the lungs are now developing

    The eyelashes on your little one are just about complete

    Your baby’s white blood cells are starting to form as well, which will help fight disease and infection

You now know more about your body then you ever did before and you are glowing with the changes that nature has bestowed upon you. Your breasts are now preparing to produce milk to feed your baby and you will continue to see changes in your breasts as they start to fill with milk and the areolas continue to grow. You will notice that your breasts are getting more and more tender each day as they make the necessary changes.  Now would be a good time to start looking into nursing bras or to talk with your doctor if you are not going to breast-feed.  There are many benefits for you and your baby where breast-feeding is concerned so make this decision wisely.

Some of the other things that you may or may not have trouble with or feel would be leg cramps, lower back pain, constipation, heartburn and difficulty getting comfortable to sleep. You can use a body pillow that helps women sleep while pregnancy as it cradles your body and relives pressure where needed. You may also see that you are forgetful but do not worry as this is normal with all pregnancies. You can expect a prenatal visit to your doctor this week as well. Your doctor will be checking all of the same things that he or she has been doing all along and will most likely have you do a glucose test. Be sure to keep a list of questions for your doctor to go over with him or her at each visit.