Week Twenty Four: Practices breathing

My wife is now 24 weeks pregnant. (fetal age 22 weeks. Here is what is going one with peanuts development.

• Peanut is now gaining around 3 ounces (90 grams) a week.
• He weighs about 1.3 pounds and is 12 inches long.
• His eyelids can be seen very clearly.
• Being born at this stage is officially considered viable, he may well be able to survive.

Peanut is producing surfactant. This is stuff that keeps the small air sacs in our lungs from collapsing. Peanut is also covered with a fine, downy hair and the skin is protected by a waxy substance. Some of this substance may still be on his skin at birth at which time it will be quickly absorbed. Peanut practices breathing by inhaling amniotic fluid into developing lungs.

Peanut gains about 3 ounces this week. The weight is in muscle, bone mass and organs. The body begins to fill out with his appearance increasingly becoming more like a newborn. Taste buds begin to form. If my wife drinks something strange or bitter, he may be observed showing his distaste.

Little creases have appeared on his palms. The muscular coordination of the hands has improved as he sucks his thumb. Over the next week or so, the sweat glands will be forming in the skin. The lungs are developing branches of the respiratory tree and cells that produce surfactant, a substance that helps the air sacs inflate easily.


After this week he is officially considered viable. 36% of babies can survive premature birth at 24 weeks - However, serious complications are still possible.