Yep, its Monday so back to my Monday pregnancy post with Christmas literally just around the corner now. It is scary to think this time next year I will have an 8 month old baby and I am sure Christmas may never quite be the same again. Being Chinese I have never really celebrated Christmas as I am more about Chinese New Year and my husband (who is English) is not overly fussed by it either so together we work quite well. But we both agreed once we have our own little family things will be different. I am now in my 24th week of my pregnancy so I am actually very close to being at my final stage, also known as the 3rd trimester. Since I found out I was pregnant at the end of July I have been quite obsessed with tracking the growth week by week.
It really is a fascinating process. From a few cells now growing to be a little baby and at 24 weeks it really does look like a proper baby with all of their vital organs developed and most of their senses working, apart from their sight. Their sight is actually pretty much the last thing to be fully developed and their eyes are actually fused shut to protect them until about 27 weeks. At 27 weeks old they will start to open but a very thin layer of membrane is still there to protect them. It is very clever how the body works and knows how to do all these things.
Baby at 27 weeks
The photo above is not my scan, it is a picture from my book. At this stage even though their eyes are able to open and shut there is no evidence to show when their eyes are shut it means they are sleeping. They are simply learning how to use their eyes ready for the outside world. Isn’t it fascinating to think that once upon a time all of us didn’t know how to use our eyes properly and we could probably sleep with our eyes open. Ha, as if we can do that now.
As the baby is sitting comfortably in their mum’s belly it is believed that the baby can respond to light, although not fully. If you shine a light at your belly they may be able to respond by moving towards the light or kicking. This is not something that is recommended to do too often because the light can actually damage your baby’s retinas and we certainly do not want the baby to have damaged eyes before it is even born.
Even once the baby is born their sight will not be fully developed until 2 years old! Another interesting fact for you ALL is that babies have blue eyes in the womb and their final colour will not be achieved until few months after birth. So there we go, once upon a time we all had blue eyes and were able to sleep with our eyes open. My husband has got lovely blue/green eyes whereas I of course have brown eyes being Chinese so I wonder what colour eyes our baby will have. All will be revealed in April, at the moment it is like a massive guessing game, guessing what our baby will look like and what sort of person they will be?