22 Weeks Pregnant: Pregnancy Pounds

You are 22 weeks pregnant! Baby’s mouth is fully developed and ready to cry at you in a few short months. She can swallow even more than before (read: pee in you even more than before), and some ultrasounds have even detected babies sticking out their tongues at this stage. A good sign for your chances of becoming a grandma one day: in baby boys the testes have started descending (it’s a long trip) and in baby girls the uterus, ovaries and vagina are formed. From head to heel baby is about 11 inches long and weighs close to 16 ounces or... a pound! Grab a pound of butter from the fridge. That’s how heavy your baby is!

Wait a minute... if baby’s only a pound, why have you gained 20? Your relationship with Haagen-Dazs is your own business, but here’s an idea of how pregnancy pounds break down by the end of 40 weeks. If you were to gain a total of 30 pounds, you would theoretically find the pounds distributed thus:

1 ½ pounds of placenta

4 pounds of extra fluids

2 pounds of uterus

2 pounds of boob (goodbye Wonder Bra, hello tensor bandages)

4 pounds of extra blood

7 pounds of fat (yeah, right...)

2 pounds of amniotic fluid

7 ½ pounds of kid

Of course, if baby comes out 10 pounds, 6 ounces, you’re retaining water like a dam and you’ve developed an unhealthy obsession with bacon cheeseburgers – or baby comes out 6 pounds, 2 ounces and you’re sick until the day you deliver – these numbers won’t quite add up. It’s just a reference. Try not to obsess. It sounds like the bacon cheeseburgers already have enough of a hold on you.