Weighing in at four pounds and about sixteen inches long, your baby is growing amazingly fast now. Her red, wrinkled skin is losing its fine lanugo covering as more insulating fat accumulates. And her eyelids, closed for so long, can now open and afford her a dim view of the place she will call home for just a few more months.

Dramatic developments in the brain and central nervous system are also occurring, as baby's nerve cells are sheathed with a substance called myelin that speeds nerve impulses. A seven-month-old fetus feels pain, can cry, and responds to stimulation from light or sound outside the womb.

Her gymnastics may subside as her space gets smaller, but you're feeling her more intensely now; her movements might even be visible to both you and your partner. Periodically tiny elbows and feet will turn your belly into an interactive relief map. Gently pushing back can provide endless entertainment for all three of you.

Even though your fetus is producing lung surfactant, a liquid mixture of lipids and proteins that coats the lungs and makes it easier to breathe, and developing aveoli (air sacs), her lungs still aren't developed enough to breathe in the outside world. If complications required an early delivery now, steroids might be administered intravenously to boost surfactant production. Chemical surfactants can also be used after birth.

You and your baby as you kick off the third trimester.