Pregnancy Signs & Symptoms, Week by Week Pregnancy Guide

You have crossed your first trimester and you are in the first phase of 2nd trimester now. As your baby is rapidly growing, it would be very exciting to know the fetal development in 16 weeks pregnancy in this stage.

Here is the fetal development of 16 weeks pregnant.

Size

Your baby is about 4.4 inches to 4.8 inches long when measured from head to crown and weighs nearly 3 and a half ounces.

Head

Baby can hold the head a little straighter when compared to the before period. Till this week, the head was bigger when compared to the rest of his/her body. But now, the body is much proportional to the head.

Heart

The heart of your baby is strengthening, and it is pumping nearly six gallons of blood in a day. His/her heartbeat is double as fast as your heart. It is working furiously to promote the circulation and to feed his/her organs for development.

Skin

In this week, your baby is starting to deposit some fat cells beneath his/her translucent skin.

Lungs

Another good development in this week is that the baby is able to breathe. The lungs are absorbing the oxygen rich amniotic fluid for practicing. The further lungs development takes place until the baby is able to breathe on his/her own after the birth. As the baby swallows in and breathes the fluid, the baby’s urinary tract is starting to function.

Sweat

Your baby is moving the legs and arms frequently. These practices could result in the sweat, as the sweat glands have already developed.

Legs

At this stage, the legs of your baby are beginning to develop longer when compared to the arms. The toes are also growing longer, and the arch of the feet is beginning to take the shape. Now the fingers are clear and separate from others. But still the fingers are short and they grow longer in the further weeks.

Other developments

• The pattern of whorl on the scalp, which forms the hair, has begun to develop.
• If you watch your baby’s face in this stage, you would find that the baby has developed some kind of reflexes including swallowing, blinking the eyes, and sucking. And also the eyes have shifted to the front part of the head.
• The urinary tract and the circulatory system are fully in the working form now, and the baby is exhaling and inhaling the fluid through the lungs.
• The baby is totally immersed in the fluid, which protects the baby as he/she develops in the amniotic fluid sac.