Pregnancy #3: Week 17

Week Seventeen

• By week 17, your baby weighs about 4.97 ounces (140gm) and is 5.12 inches (13cm) long.**
• He or she has a much more normal "human" appearance now. She holds her head more erect and her body and limbs are longer in proportion to her head.
• Pads are forming on his tiny fingertips and toes. Soon those individual swirls and whorls will be apparent.
• Her eyes are looking forward now, but they are still firmly closed.
• Meconium (composed of products of cell loss, digestive secretion and swallowed amniotic fluid), is accumulating in the bowel. This black gooey substance will become your baby's first poop!
• The umbilical cord is growing thicker and stronger and continues to rush blood and nutrients to your growing baby.*
• If your child is male the prostate begins to develop.
• Her skeleton is tranforming from cartilage to bone. The bones remain flexible to make the journey through the birth canal easier.

**: My last ultrasound showed that the baby was weighing 6 ounces at week 16.
*: The ultrasound also revealed that my cord has three vessels- that's very good!