The nausea of your first trimester is over, and you are not yet large enough to experience the increasing fatigue, which marks the third trimester.
If you plan on taking a holiday, do it before the third trimester begins. You might be too large and uncomfortable to travel in your third trimester and wished you had taken a break when you had the opportunity.
Your baby continues to grow larger and has very thin translucent skin. Through the skin you can see your baby's blood vessels.
Hair on the eyebrows and crown of the head continues to grow. If genetically your baby is likely to have dark hair, its follicles will start producing pigment to color the hair. LanugoThe soft downy hair that covers the fetus while it is in the womb. Lanugo is almost entirely shed by the time the baby is born.
Visit our comprehensive glossary for more pregnancy terms and definitions. now covers the skin on your baby's body.
Your baby's eyes and ears continue to mature and its face gets more detailed. Your baby's limbs now have flexible joints that allow it to move more freely. Your baby's arms are mobile at the elbows and wrists. It can make a fist by closing its hands.
Your baby's bones are getting harder in a process called ossificationA term used to describe the development and hardening of bone. There are two processes: intramembranous ossification and intracartilaginous ossification.
Intramembranous ossification takes place in the formation and development of the skull and involves initially creating membrane which subsequently harden to become bone.
Intracartilaginous ossification is the formation of rods of cartilage, which subsequently harden to form the bones of limbs.
Visit our comprehensive glossary for more pregnancy terms and definitions., in which the bone tissue retains calcium. An x-ray taken now would reveal your baby's skeleton.
Your heart has grown rapidly during the last few weeks. It has now increased its output by about twenty percent to allow for the additional blood in your circulatory system.
Your increased blood volume will continue to increase to provide both you and your baby with oxygen. Your body cannot keep up with the rate of red blood cellA concave disk containing hemoglobin surrounded by a lipoid membrane. It is the major cellular element of the circulating blood and it serves primarily to transport oxygen. The number of red blood cells is about 4 and 4.5 million per cubic millimeter in women (4.5 and 5 million per cubic millimeter in men).
The average lifespan of a red blood cell is between 110 and 115 days after which it is removed from the bloodstream. New red blood cells are produced at about the rate of 1% daily to keep levels constant. Red blood cells originate in the marrow of long bones. Also called erythrocytes.
Visit our comprehensive glossary for more pregnancy terms and definitions. production however, so much of the increased blood volume will be plasmaThe colorless, watery fluid of the blood in which the leukocytes, erythrocytes and platelets are suspended. Plasma contains no cells, instead consisting of water, electrolytes, proteins, glucose, fats, bilirubin and gases.
Plasma is important because it enables the cellular elements of the blood to flow through the circulatory system carrying nutrients and wastes from the tissues and maintaining the body's acid-base balance.
Plasma is similar to interstitial fluid in content and protein concentration. Because of this, it helps maintain osmotic pressure and the exchange of fluids and electrolytes between the capillaries and the body tissues.
Visit our comprehensive glossary for more pregnancy terms and definitions. causing many women to endure a condition called physiologic anemia of pregnancy.
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