4 weeks:

 heart is pumping nutrients around the body

 black dots on head are beginning of the eyes
 buds forming around the body are arms and legs
 spinal column extends beyond the leg bones to form a tail

8 weeks:

 placenta is mature (more on placenta less on body parts)

9 weeks:

 (more on mother)

10 weeks:

 Can be seen through ultrasound

 (more on ultrascan/4d scans)
 (more on twins)

11 weeks:

 They start kicking (stepping reflex)

 (More on the fetus kicking because of the stepping reflex)
 Muscles and nerves are twitching
 Presence of liver
 Two kidneys
 A stomach with the size of a grain of rice
 Male & female fetuses have identical genitals; both sexes have a Petrobras which will
become a penis for boys and for girls, a clitoris. At 12 weeks, the only difference is that
they stick out at different angles.

12 weeks:

 Bruh ??? (more on sex organs??)

16 weeks:

 “the brain extends its reach” the fetus starts to practice a wide range of intricate
movement
 Much more mobile; muscles are flexing, fingers and toes are separate and defined, and
bones are hardening
 Touches and feels?? (artsy narrator)
 Hands develop before the feet
 Fetus develops proprioception (has an unconscious sense of body and space)
 (more on proprioception)
18 weeks:

 mother is aware of baby’s movemnts (for the first time)

 its only now that the movemnts are strong enough to feel
 “eyes [now in correct positon] are generally thought to remain fused shut until 24 weeks
but some open as early as 18 weeks” (eyes still don’t work though but-)
 FIRST SIGN OF BLINKING REFLEX HERE

After 6 months of pregnancy, “EVERYTHING IS DEVELOPED AND IS FUNCTIONING AS IT WILL IN THE

FULLY GROWN BABY – ITS ALL THERE” just small and immature

 [next phase: development of senses]

24 weeks:

 (more on pre-term babies)

 Lungs are barely capable of taking enough oxygen into the bloodstream to keep baby
alive [if born pre-term]
 More movement from baby
 Senses flicker into life: Eyes, ears, nose, tastebuds and the nerves that respond to touch
and knowledge
 The mouth [and] nasal passages are filled with amniotic fluid
 “Baby can taste and smell mother’s cooking” though the mother’s food: blood stream >
placenta > baby’s bloodstream
 They are able to taste to help establish breastfeeding when baby is born
 Seeing is one sense that cant be experienced until born

25 weeks:

 Eyes are so intricate that even eyelashes have grown (color of eyes not developed inside
the womb)
 Hearing is the most keenly developed of all fetal senses
 Can hear conversations, noise, etc (more on sense of hearing)
 Fetus will only hear the melody of speech
 Sound of mother is different (deeper relationship with mother than anyone else)

[Since 16 weeks old, fetus has been exploring the feel of his limited world]

 Sense of touch is so advanced now that fetus will react if prodded through mother’s
belly
 Can feel pain (during ultrasound scan, fetuses can be seen frowning)

(introduction to sucking)

26 weeks:

 May react to sudden sounds with the startle reflex

 Fetus will swallow up to half a liter of amniotic fluid every day; To help digestive system
develop but mostly to practice swallowing (reflex)
  Sucking reflex (any nipple close to his mouth will trigger sucking refles)
 Dramatic growth in brain and nervous system continues [and the fetus will create his
first memory (I think outsite na lol)]
 Possible to hear the fetal heartbeat by putting ear against abdomen
 Fetal heart beats twice as fast as the mother’s
 (more on effects of stress of mother to baby)
 The mother can feel her baby moving everyday (more on hiccups)
 Lungs are last of the major organs to form (they serve no purpose before birth) but the
baby still does breathing movements

28 weeks:

 Gaining weight as the baby lays down a layer of fat under his skin
 Senses are buzzing (becoming increasingly aware of the world around him-
 Brain is matured enough to support consciousness [and for the first time, he is
beginning to create memory]
 Nursery rhymes, type of music = can affect the baby (calm etc)

(at 33 weeks/3 months the baby is already able to remember and think like a newborn baby)

33 weeks:

 Babies spend most of their time asleep

 Babies have REM (rapid eye movent sleep) [later in life, it is an indication of dreaming]
 “dreaming may be the crucial process that stimulates the brain to grow”
 Each minute, the fetus makes two and a half million nerve cells and now after 8 months,
his brain is filled with more than a hundred billion neurons with a hundred trillion
connections, the baby’s brain and head have grown as big as they can
 Baby gaining more fat = he is taking more resources than mother can provide

38 weeks:

 When the lungs are mature, the secrete a protein into the amniotic fluid that alters the
placenta’s production of hormones = oxytocin kick-starts the contractions of the uterus
and labor begins
 (more on oxytocin and labor)
 (MORE ON LABOR) the baby releases adrenaline to keep his heart pumping fast enough
 Adrenaline also helps prepare the lungs for the life of work they are about to begin
 More on labor/cervix/contraction etc
 Baby is born