Week 16: Advancing Avocado

Look at our baby bump now! :)

Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, baby's about the size of an avocado: 4 ½ - 5 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces.

Listen up: Tiny bones in your fetus's ears are in place this week, making it likely that the baby can hear your voice when you're speaking (or singing in the shower) at 16 weeks pregnant. In fact, studies have found that babies who are sung to while they're in the womb recognize the same tune when it's sung to them after they are born.

And baby's busily boning up in other ways. For one, the backbone (along with the back muscles) is stronger now — strong enough, in fact, to enable your baby to work on straightening his or her head and neck even more.

This little one's a looker — with a face that has both eyebrows and eyelashes — but a skinny looker since there's no baby fat yet. And here's the skinny on baby skin: It's practically translucent now, so if you took a peek inside your uterus, you'd be able to see your baby's blood vessels under that thin skin.