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When you are pregnant with multiples or twins at 21 weeks, you can tell yourself that you are pretty much in the final league of the journey. The approaching due date will begin to revolve inside your head and make itself known by the substantial progress you’ll see in these couple of weeks. Although things might start making you tired and exhausted a little more than before, all of these are essential in changing your body to accommodate the massive events that are going to occur within some months. Taking proper care of your self and keeping track of the development of your children can keep you a step ahead in all aspects.
The Growth of the Babies at 21 Weeks
With the halfway point way behind you now, the babies also begin to realise that they need to catch up with their growth and keep themselves ready to survive in the outside world. Most of the progress is focused on ensuring all those systems are functioning appropriately.
Food is the key to survival and this also becomes one of the top priorities for the growth of the babies in this week. The digestive system, having appropriately developed, initiates its processing and begins attempts at digesting the food. This is precisely where the black coloured meconium is formed inside the baby and stays there until it is flushed out in the baby’s first poop. The initial digestion processes within the child also generate enzymes and acids to support the function correctly.
The digestive development also reiterates itself to strengthen further the tendency of consuming food. The acts of sucking and swallowing also progress rapidly, as your babies tend to take in a lot more amniotic fluid and may even prefer sucking on their thumbs more than usual. All of these are the methods which assure the body that it is fit to survive outside.
With all these inputs focused on food and digestion ensuring that it can be synthesised, the excretory systems within the babies also begin to function at a higher degree. Kidneys and urinary organs start to process the amniotic fluid that the babies intake and flush it outside again. This is a cycle of sorts that orients the body’s functioning in the right manner.
Apart from these, the endocrinal system and the spleen begin working too, while the muscles and bone structure continues to develop speedily.
What is The Size of the Babies?
Around the 21st week of pregnancy, doctors usually start measuring the babies from head to toe, since their bodies would have begun to stretch themselves properly. This often puts children at a length of approximately 25 centimetres and would be lesser for multiples. Similarly, the weight also seems to be closer to 250-300 grams and can fluctuate for twins or triplets. Your little ones would now be as large as carrots inside your tummy.
Common Bodily Changes
The 21st week of pregnancy is one of the key milestones biologically since it provides a strong signal for the babies as well as the mother to begin adjusting to the upcoming changes before delivery.
- Although being so far deep into your pregnancy would have rid you of most anxiety and worry surrounding your babies, your body is still getting used to numerous changes happening within it. The only issue in the matter of the changes is that they are rarely in sync with each other, causing you to handle one after the other. While you may be looking forward to resting in the afternoon, you might be grappled with thoughts around your future and any other aspects concerning the babies. And if you finally end up being successful in putting yourself to sleep, your bladder will perk up and cause you to awaken and make your way to the loo for a random pee time in the middle of the night. Insomnia can strike many women in such situations, making them extremely restless.
- If the creation of life for a woman is one of the mysterious processes, the cravings that ensue as a result of it might come as a close second. You might be well aware of the food items you wish to gobble and binge on in these previous months. However, as your little ones begin to initiate their digestion processes, these cravings could either stay the same or might sway entirely in a different direction. The babies now have a direct line to your food consumption via the amniotic fluid. Therefore, if their choices of food differ from yours, there is a good chance your body will signal you to have what the baby wants, which can get confusing.
- That thick milky coloured discharge that keeps coming out from your vagina will continue to do so even through this week or maybe some more. While some women expect it to reduce, there usually isn’t the possibility for it. The discharge tends to increase up until you deliver your child since this is the perfect way the body ensures a hygienic vagina and a clean birth canal to keep the baby safe when it travels through it.
Symptoms of Twin Pregnancy at 21 Weeks
On one hand, you might be saying goodbye to the previous symptoms that you had initially. But from the 21st week, the teaser for what might arrive in the final trimester might begin to reveal itself to you.
- Many women who are pregnant for the first time, and that too with twins or triplets, tend to freak out when they feel contractions early on in the pregnancy. Some women experience slight ones as soon as in the 17th week, while many tend to experience them from here on out. These contractions are termed as Braxton Hicks contractions. Usually lasting around half a minute or so, any change in orientation or positions tends to fade them away. Just the way the babies are practising different bodily functions, these contractions are your body’s way of exercising the process of childbirth
- The uterus has only one job which it continues to do without any interruption. It goes on expanding to make room for all the babies that will soon be jostling for space inside it with their speedy growth. This expansion has also to be accommodated by your skin, which ends up in stretching and pulling itself. Stretch marks, which might have been only in a couple of body regions, might start being visible in other places, too. At times, these could even irritate the skin and causing itching, which can be taken care of with a light massage.
- Yes, your breasts will also increase in size with your tummy, now that they know that your due date is approaching in a few months. While the growth usually reaches its full completion around the 24th week, early lactation might commence right now causing you to spot leaks around your nipples or in your bra intermittently.
Twin Pregnancy – Belly at 21 Weeks
Have you been waiting for that beautiful pregnant belly that you keep seeing in advertisements or elsewhere on the Internet? Well, you are in the initial phases of those as your tummy will now begin to resemble more like it in the coming weeks. In the case of multiple babies, since the skin stretches extensively, certain movements of the babies might be visible occasionally.
Twin Pregnancy at 21 Weeks – Ultrasound
Any ultrasound scans that were skipped in the previous week would be completed this week around, along with all the tests and checkups. Your babies would be visible very clearly, with occasional moments where you could see them swallowing and moving around, too.
What to Eat?
The 21st week of pregnancy marks an important juncture in your dietary style. With the babies having taste buds of their own and pretty much consuming what you eat, every flavour that you taste, your baby ends up tasting too. This may create the bedrock for eating habits ahead in life. Which is why it is necessary to stick to healthy food items and stay away from anything that might be a bit too intense in smell or flavour.
Pregnancy Care Tips
Most of the changes that occur in the 21st week of the pregnancy with multiple babies usually revolves around taking good care of your own body and setting up a habit routine to suit the latter months.
Dos
- Undertake a screening test for glucose if you can to check for any conditions in advance
- Organize a baby shower or celebration if you can, since this would be one of those weeks where you’d still have your energy intact
Dont’s
- Binging on sweets should be a no-no since those could affect your baby as well as ruin the dental hygiene
- There’s no need to stop exercising entirely but you can tone down the intensity by this week
What you Need to Shop For
Knowing that your babies are in sync with your progress, you can go a step ahead and purchase some necessary items, such as:
- A moisturiser or a stretch mark cream for your skin
- Paraphernalia for the babies right from shampoos to baby oil and so on
The development of twins at 21 weeks pregnant tends to take a speedy curve up ahead and pick up its pace from this week. Reassure yourself that you will be ready for the babies when they arrive and keep your mental and physical health optimal to be at your best when the time comes.
