Week 31 - 32
March 31st, 2007 at 10:21 pm (Stages of Pregnancy)
Your baby weighs about 1.7kg (1,700 grams or approximately 3 lbs 12 ozs) and measures about 43 cm from head to toe (or just under 17 inches).
Your baby has now put on enough weight to make them look a little chubby! The fine hair that covered their entire body (called lanugo) now disappears from their face, but remains on their torso. Most babies sleep about 90% of the time at this stage, in between having shorts bursts of movement when awake (every 1 to 2 hours). Many unborn babies like to be active during the evenings when their mother is trying to sleep, between 9pm and 1am!
Your baby’s lungs continue to mature, producing increasing amounts of ’surfactant’. This is a fatty liquid (called phospholipid) that lines their lungs, keeping them moist and helping the sacs within them (called alveoli) to expand efficiently for breathing. Your baby’s sucking and swallowing action (required to drink milk) fully coordinates between 32 to 34 weeks.