The Sixth Month of Pregnancy

23 Weeks Pregnant

Your baby now responds to your movements.

The skin of the baby at this stage is wrinkly. This will change once it starts accumulating layers of fat beneath the skin. At more than 20 centimetres and almost 450 grams, you might even feel your baby move when you do. Be gentle with yourself.

24 Weeks Pregnant

Hair starts growing now.

At around 22 centimetres, and 680 grams with fat deposition yet to happen, your baby looks quite lean. Hair is developing fast although if you could see it, you would not be able to tell its colour as there’s no pigment in the hair just yet.  The brain is growing rapidly and the thin, wrinkly translucent skin will give way to a smoother one in the next trimester.

25 Weeks Pregnant

Your baby’s lungs are developing branches.

Your baby now measures about 23 centimetres and weighs 750 grams. Your baby’s lungs are getting ready to breathe, producing branches and surfactant, a substance to help it breathe in the outside world.

26 Weeks Pregnant

Your baby gets ready to breathe.

Your baby develops movements that will later help it take its first whiff of air in the world, inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid. The nerves in your baby’s ears are developing and getting more sensitive maybe even enabling it to differentiate between its parents voices.

27 Weeks Pregnant – The start of your third trimester

Your baby develops a sleep-wake cycle.

Your baby can now be measured from head to toe – previously, its legs were curled up against its torso, making it hard to measure. Weighing nearly 900 grams and measuring about 38 centimetres, your baby is getting more and more disciplined. It sleeps and wakes at more regular intervals and perhaps even sucks its fingers. You may feel rhythmic movements – this is just your baby hiccuping!  These episodes do not last long and you need not worry much about them.