When Are Newborn Growth Spurts
During pregnancy, your baby grows inside you like a plant growing in soil. Soon after fertilization (the release of an egg from your ovary), your baby starts to form organs. For the first two months, she grows vertically but soon changes this so she can grow and move around.
She will stick out of your body for another 2 or 3 weeks before delivery. At that time, a small circle of cells at the bottom of her mouth contracts rapidly, which causes the start of labor and leads to the coming together of her ribs and legs to form a head and trunk.
During those last few weeks before delivery, regular contractions called stims don’t hurt yet, are sporadic, and come every three to five minutes. They happen because your baby has moved up toward his elbows by then. But blood vessels have begun developing between your baby’s toes, and these can get compressed if he moves too much.
That’s why it is very important to know when they start, as things can go wrong if you aren’t paying attention.
Also, during this period, human milk production develops enough that your baby should be getting what she needs from you. She also gets many opportunities to try foods other than breastmilk. By the end of the second week, she will probably take a bottle.
By the way, most women report feeling sleepier at night and more tired in the morning now
During pregnancy
The first trimester is typically considered to be very difficult. Many physical changes happen inside your body during this time. You may experience some menstrual bleeding, painful sex, tender breasts, or nausea and vomiting. All of these symptoms can affect your daily life and make it hard to take care of yourself.
The second trimester is a more comfortable period for most pregnant women. Varies from woman to woman, but around the 14th week, any fetus blood cells migrate from the bone marrow toward the placenta. By the 21st week, all fetal tissues have migrated beyond the placental barrier.
It is during this stage that babies grow mainly due to maternal nutrition. After the 21st week if mothers eat well and maintain their health they will tend to have an easier delivery followed by a shorter third phase.
Most infants are fed every few hours through the mouth with milk being produced by the mammary glands. However, the amount of feeding and how often the infant eats determines how much milk you produce.
If infants are not eating frequently enough, then we rely on regurgitation (when food comes back up) or self-feeding. Self-feeding happens when a baby takes something between bites and puts it in his/her mouth again. This can occur before he/she has properly learned what foods are and aren’t safe.
In the late stages, after the uterus has contracted considerably, the movement of the fetus
Just before birth
Babies are born in the last half of pregnancy. About 48 hours after conception, the fetus starts developing inside the uterus or womb.
Around two days afterward (which is roughly when pregnancy was detected), the baby’s arms start to form. By this time, you can feel the child moving around within the uterus.
Next, between 13 and 24 weeks, the facial features begin to form. Also, at about 12 weeks, your doctor may check the fetal heart rate.
This checks for abnormalities such as low blood pressure or slow beating. It also looks for preterm babies that might need medical help .
At 20 weeks most kids can hear sounds from outside the womb. Between 21 and 40 weeks, newborns will spend almost all their time sleeping- probably why people mistake sleepy new mothers for tiredness due to delivery.
By 42 weeks gestation, there’s a good chance the baby will be breathing on its own. And by full term, the baby should only stay inside the uterus for 2–3 months.
More than 3 months seems like an eternity, but it’s not so much once they're coming anyway. This just means more complications during pregnancy and a longer recovery.
Moments after birth
Your baby will start off life at a healthy weight
The first few weeks of your child’s life are very important for their growth.
During this time, they increase muscle mass and brain development.
If you don’t put in the work now, it can be harder to get back into shape as an adult. This is also the time when people tend to gain weight more easily.
A growing child also needs ample nutrition during these early years. Because they aren’t able to digest food like adults, they need meals with lots of nutrients that growing kids do.
Making sure you provide enough nutritious foods becomes even more important during this period. It also means establishing a regular eating schedule so your kid knows how to keep a balanced diet.
Postpartum growth
After birth, your baby will begin to grow again. This is called “postpartum growth”. During this time, his body will rebuild itself in preparation for the delivery of the next child.
Your doctor may do blood tests to check for thyroid problems or vitamin deficiencies. For most women, delivering a small number of babies tends to slow down their overall weight gain.
However, if you have many children, you may need to eat more during this period to make up for it. You also may be encouraged to continue eating after you give birth as well.
Postpartum depression can affect your ability to get enough food into your hungry little girl . Consult with your physician about increasing your meal intake.
What happens during birth?
During pregnancy, your baby grows inside you like a plant growing in soil. As she grows, her roots (the umbilical cord) grow too.
When labor starts, there is no further growth of the fetus so both the root and the shoot (vertical shaft) are drawn into the womb wall. Once this happens, only the tip of the fetal stem remains outside the uterus to form the shoulder, neck, face, etc.
This action and reaction between embryo/fetus, uterus, placenta, and mother’s body keep creating new cells and rebuilding old ones as needed. No cell division gives rise to new cells; that comes from feeding things out.
The hormone oxytocin helps contract the uterus lining around the bump (stump) left by delivery. This speeds up the process of wound healing at the site of placental insertion.
Auxiliary spurt
Most babies experience an auxiliary (or secondary) growth spurting soon after birth. This is when a baby’s weight increases rapidly due to their growing muscles and organs.
An auxiliary spurt starts around two weeks after birth. It usually lasts from five to fourteen days. During this time, your child’s waist-to- chest ratio expands significantly .
This expansion happens because of hormone levels going up after breastfeeding or via milk intake.
Auxiliary spurt happens in children without catchup growth . However, some kids can grow fast enough during primary childhood to keep up with it.
Terminal spurt
The terminal spurts in growth are happening anywhere between 3 to 6 months after birth. This is a period where babies will have very rapid development.
These periods are regulated by hormones, which makes them more pronounced than during pregnancy. They can start anytime from two weeks after delivery to three years later.
During this time, your child’s weight and height may increase rapidly. Height for age and weight for age can vary significantly during this time.
A baby who goes through a terminal spurt ends up being at its highest developmental level shortly before the end of the window when fetal surgery could be performed. Between 83% and 96% of children develop normally until they reach about six months. From that point forward, neurological issues such as cerebral palsy become much more prevalent.
This occurs because the brain requires blood flow, and bone marrow produces red and white cells within the bone structure that serves as tissue throughout the body. These two factors require extra oxygen and nutrients, and therefore the body releases cytokines to make room for them.
However, if these changes are not recorded, or if problems arise due to a lack of monitoring, complications related to chronic illness may occur. A parent may feel that their child has suddenly declined physically and developed symptoms they did not notice before death.
Head growth
You may know that the fetus develops teeth starting around week 18. At this stage, his teeth begin to push through the skin on the front of his mouth. By 32 weeks, these tooth buds will be noticeable. Also around this time, the ears start to develop, first the cartilage, then the bone. These sprouts get thicker and taller until the end of the second trimester.
Around 30 weeks, the heart starts to look more adult-like. More specifically, the embryonic stem button migrates back down to the abdomen, where it eventually becomes part of the development of the lower extremities (feet and legs).
Between 35 and 37 weeks, the umbilical cord also finishes developing . Flow from the placenta into the uterus slows, and oxygen intake decays. By crowning the head, the anterior shoulder areas round out.
At seven months, the eyelids close, signaling sleep. This occurs between 39 and 42 weeks. Around 36 hours after birth, breathing and heartbeat stabilize...