17 Weeks...

Your babies are each approximately 5 inches long (crown to rump) and weigh just less than 5 ounces. They should weigh more than the placenta from this point on. Since your babies' hearing has become more finely tuned, they may respond to loud noises and you may feel movement at the sound of a slamming door. Epidermal (skin) and fatty tissue are developing all over their bodies to protect them after they are born and a substance called vernix is beginning to form on the skin tissue to protect it from the long exposure to amniotic fluid.




*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.