Your baby at 23 weeks pregnant weighs one pound which is about the size of a doll; and it is eleven inches long. This is big time progress when you remember that it once weighed less than an ounce. The baby at 23 weeks pregnant still has a wrinkled skinny appearance and looks red. This will change as more and more fats continue to deposit below the baby’s skin and give it more flesh.
As the pregnancy continues the baby fills out more and becomes proportional. At 23 weeks pregnant, the baby’s sense of movement has developed greatly and it is able to feel the movements taking place outside the womb. This is the time when you can play soft music and dance to it with your significant other. The baby feels the smooth movements and you can notice or feel it reacting to it.
Since it can hear sounds from outside the womb at 23 weeks pregnant, you should be very careful about noises. You may notice that the baby squirms when you are vacuuming or when there is a lot of noise. The blood vessels of the baby are developing and so are the lungs. But they will not be completely mature until you are thirty seven weeks pregnant when it is ready to breathe on its own outside the womb.
The baby’s movements at 23 weeks pregnant are more pronounced because there is still plenty of room in the uterus. The baby is very active it may be stretching and somersaulting; you can even see your belly moving at times. At 23 weeks pregnant, if the baby is born, it will have ten to twenty percent chances of surviving. The more time the baby spends in the womb during the pregnancy the higher his or her chances of surviving when it is born.
Your uterus at 23 weeks pregnant is one point five inches above the navel. You have probably gained about fifteen pounds since week one of the pregnancy, although this varies from one woman to another. The weight increase is beginning to make it hard for you to move around comfortably and even you may feel less balanced on your feet.
You should ensure that you get as much rest as possible and take it easy. Do not strain yourself too much. At 23 weeks pregnant is also a good time for you to take time and bond with the baby by talking to it and rubbing the belly since it is now more sensitive to touch and hearing. Rubbing your skin will also help in reducing the tension of the skin as it is stretching. This may help to reduce stretch marks.
Stretch marks are common during pregnancy and will appear commonly at 23 week pregnant if you have gained a lot of weight suddenly or are genetically predisposed to them. Creams and lotions can help reduce stretch marks although you cannot completely avoid pregnancy stretch marks.
