Welcome to week 22 of your pregnancy! This week, your baby is as big as a coconut. Here’s what else you can expect this week.
Your baby
At 22 weeks, your baby is about the size of a coconut, weighing approximately 430 grams. If you haven’t felt it yet, those little kicks and movements are growing stronger. Your baby’s eyelids, previously fused, might begin to open and close, allowing them to experience the play of light and dark. Their tiny taste buds are also continuing to form.
You
The top of your uterus is now above your bellybutton. There’s no disguising that bump! You may also feel a little clumsy and forgetful. While your baby sleeps like a newborn — around 14 hours per day — you may now start to have a range of sleeping issues. Sudden painful cramps in your legs — usually the calves — may wake you in the night.
Hopefully at this point you’ll feel like you’ve found a rhythm in this whole pregnancy thing. If you’re enjoying it, embrace every part and enjoy your bump and your glowing skin and your likely much thicker hair. If you’re not enjoying it particularly, know this: That’s totally fine, you’re not alone, and glowing skin is no replacement for the ability to enjoy a meal or to stand up without feeling girdle pain. You’ve got this, mama!
More: 3 Foods To Eat That Help Regulate Hormones
Anything else?
Some new things that might emerge this week or around this time are stretch marks, an otherwise ‘innie’ but now ‘outie’ belly button, an increased sex drive (yep, more hormone raging!) and increased vaginal discharge as the result of increased blood flow down there. Oh, and maybe even swollen hands and/or feet. A delight, no doubt.
More: New Invention Created To Help Dads Feel More Involved In Pregnancy
READ MORE
- 23 weeks pregnant: Week-by-week guide to development and symptoms
- 24 weeks pregnant: Week-by-week guide to development and symptoms
- 25 weeks pregnant: Week-by-week guide to development and symptoms
- 26 weeks pregnant: Week-by-week guide to development and symptoms
