24 weeks and 6 days pregnant

The nose is well defined and as well as regularly swallowing the amniotic fluid your baby is breathing it in and out through each nostril. Just as adults do, your baby will tend to favour breathing more through one nostril than the other.

The proportions of your baby’s body are becoming much closer to those of a newborn baby.

Up until the third month , your baby’s head accounted for almost half of his overall length. Now his head, trunk, and legs account for a third each. At birth your baby’s head will still be large in proportion compared to an adult’s, but it will be just a quarter of his overall length.

Still very skinny, your baby is now starting to fill out more as fat stores continue to be laid down. Until about 14 weeks, most babies are approximately the same size and weight. After this point, genetic and especially environmental forces increasingly come into play, influencing how quickly your baby can grow and whether his full growth potential is eventually reached.

Because different babies increasingly vary in size as the pregnancy progresses, ultrasound dating becomes less accurate at determining the number of weeks you are into your pregnancy. The best time to date the pregnancy is between 11 and 14 weeks, by simply measuring the baby from the top of his head to his bottom (the crown–rump length). The 20-week scan also dates the pregnancy very accurately from the head and abdominal circumferences and the bone measurement in the leg.

If your first scan is at this late stage, it is only possible to estimate roughly the stage of pregnancy and age of the baby. It is never appropriate to change your due date if an earlier, more accurate scan has been performed.

The general story goes that if you’re carrying your baby low, you’re having a boy, if you’re carrying high, then you’re having a girl. The truth is, the way you carry is probably determined by the tone of your abdominal and uterine muscles as well as the position of your baby.

According to those “old wives”, there are other physical clues: if you’ve gained weight on your face and it’s round and full, you’re having a girl. If your right breast is larger than your left, it’s a boy – and if your partner gains weight, you’re “definitely” having a girl!