Week 25

Your Baby’s Development:

Your baby is roughly the size of a small eggplant by now. From this point forward, your baby’s lungs are the stars of the show. They are constantly growing larger and more sophisticated in order to prepare your baby for his or her first big, deep breath. For now, your baby simply inhales and exhales your amniotic fluid in preparation for the big event. In addition to the lungs preparing for breathing air, the nose is as well. The nostrils, which were previously plugged up, are now starting to open.

What You Should Expect:

Your belly is growing at a significant rate these days and all of that weight puts pressure on you—both literally and figuratively. Some women develop hemorrhoids at this stage in their pregnancies, which is a painful condition marked by swelling of the blood vessels in the rectum. Eat a lot of fiber so you do not strain when you “go” and try some witch hazel pads to help shrink the blood vessels.