At 32 weeks your baby is approximately 16.7 inches from head to toe, and weighs almost 3 3/4 pounds(about the size of a large jicama, or a squash).
Your baby will gain a third to half of its birth weight during the next 7 weeks as it fattens up for survival outside the womb. Baby now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Its skin is becoming soft and smooth as baby plumps up in preparation for birth. This week, many babies settle into a heads-down, or vertex position. Sometime between now and around week 34, baby will “drop” from up near your ribs to down near your pelvis, where he or she will hang out in the head-down position until delivery. When this happens you may notice you suddenly go from “carrying high” to “carrying low.” This isn’t a guarantee though; some baby's don’t drop until mom’s actually in labor. Because his or her taste buds are developed, it may acquire a preference for the foods you eat, which baby samples when it swallows amniotic fluid. Almost all babies born at this stage or later survive and go on to have very healthy, normal lives. By this time all of the major organs are fully functioning except the lungs, which need just a bit more time to mature completely. There's not much to report on your baby-to-be's developmental milestones this week. Much of its growth is strictly adding weight through fat layers that will insulate its maturing organs. Baby will need plenty of fat tissue to keep it warm once it leaves its home in your womb and enters the world, where the environmental temperature is not as controlled. Although you can't see it in this image, your baby has probably been attempting to breathe this week, though the lungs still need more time to mature.
Note: Every baby develops a little differently — even in the womb. This information is to give you a general idea of your baby's size.
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