Pregnancy Week 24
Baby’s Growth During the 24th Week of Pregnancy
At about 8 1/2 inches long and 1 1/2 pounds, your baby is gaining steadily at a rate of six ounces per week. The majority of the gain comes from growing organs, bones, muscle, and accumulating baby fat. Your baby’s face is almost fully formed, complete with eyelashes, eyebrows, and hair. If you wondering what color hair your baby will have, there is still no pigment so we’ll just have to keep waiting.
The brain is growing quickly now too, and taste buds are continuing to develop. The lungs are developing “branches” of the respiratory “tree” as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help the air sacs inflate once your baby hits the outside world.
Body Changes in the 24th Week of Pregnancy
The top of your uterus has risen above your belly button and is now about the size of a soccer ball. And speaking of your belly button, your former innie might now an outie. Almost every expectant Mom’s belly button pops at some point as the swelling uterus pushes on everything in its path. This should return to normal after delivery, though your navel might look a bit stretched.
A large majority of expectant Moms will have a glucose screening test (also called a glucose challenge test or GCT) between now and 28 weeks. This test checks for gestational diabetes, a pregnancy-related high-blood-sugar condition. Untreated diabetes increases your risk of having a difficult vaginal delivery or needing a cesarean section because it causes your baby to grow too large, especially in the upper body.
A positive result on your GCT doesn’t mean you have gestation diabetes, but it does mean you’ll need to take the glucose tolerance test (GTT) to find out for sure.
