Your baby this week
Your baby is putting on a growth show. If you could hold them now, they'd be about a foot long — roughly the size of a soccer ball — and weigh around one and a third pounds. Just a few weeks ago they were raspberry-sized; the scale of growth happening inside you is honestly astonishing.
Inside, the big project this week is the lungs. The tiniest airways are branching and budding into air sacs, and special cells are beginning to produce a substance called surfactant — the helper that will one day keep those little air sacs open for real breathing. Your baby is rehearsing already: rhythmic practice breathing movements draw amniotic fluid in and out of those developing lungs, like a dress rehearsal for opening night.
The senses are wide awake too. Your baby's inner ear is developed, which means they hear the soundtrack of your body — your heartbeat, your digestion, the muffled music of the world outside. They may startle at a loud sound or settle to the sound of your voice; many partners love talking or reading to the bump around now, and there's a real chance your baby is listening.
Taste buds are forming as well, and the flavors of your meals season the fluid your baby swallows every day. Your baby's skin is still thin and a little translucent, but fat is beginning to build beneath it, and that will change quickly from here. Hair may be growing with its first hints of color and texture.
And your baby has sleep and wake cycles now — you'll start recognizing the pattern of busy times and quiet times that becomes your baby's daily rhythm. The movements are getting stronger, too: the flutters of a few weeks ago are becoming honest kicks, rolls, and stretches — and around now, your partner may be able to feel them too, with a patient hand on your belly at one of your baby's busy times. If it hasn't happened yet, it will soon — a placenta positioned at the front can cushion the show for a little longer, which is normal too.
Viability: how to hold this milestone
From around 24 weeks, babies born early can survive outside the womb with intensive care in a neonatal unit, and every additional week they stay inside improves the picture enormously. Here's how to hold this milestone: it's reassurance, not expectation.
The overwhelming majority of week-24 babies stay exactly where they are for many more weeks, growing stronger in the safest place there is. Viability simply means your baby has reached a new level of readiness — one more reason to marvel at what's happening in there.
Your body & symptoms: the backache era begins
Your uterus is now up above your belly button, and your bump is in a visible growth spurt. That changing center of gravity, plus joints loosened by pregnancy hormones, is why backache is the headline symptom for many women right now: a deep ache in the lower back by evening, stiffness after sitting, a body that asks you to change positions more often. Close behind: leg cramps, often arriving as a rude charley horse in the calf in the middle of the night.
Mild swelling in your feet and ankles by the end of the day is common too, especially in warm weather or after long stretches on your feet. The skin over your growing belly can feel tight and itchy, and stretch marks may begin to appear — they're largely written in your genetics, they arrive in every shade, and they're an extremely common souvenir of this season. You might also notice practice contractions, called Braxton Hicks: a painless or mildly uncomfortable tightening of the belly that comes and goes irregularly and usually settles when you rest or drink some water.
Your body is rehearsing, just like your baby is. Add in some heartburn as space gets snug, a moment of lightheadedness if you stand up too fast, perhaps a darkening line running down your belly, and a belly button that's thinking about popping out — and you have a very normal week 24. A busy one, but normal.
Comforts for the aches & cramps
Let's get you more comfortable. For your back: think small adjustments, repeated often. Rise from chairs slowly, avoid standing in one spot for long stretches, and swap heels for supportive, flat shoes.
Sitting with a small cushion tucked behind your lower back helps more than it has any right to. Gentle movement is medicine here — a daily walk, and simple stretches like rocking on all fours in a cat-cow motion, keep the ache from settling in. A warm bath or a warm compress on your back at the end of the day is a classic for a reason.
For leg cramps, two parts: the rescue and the prevention. When a cramp grabs your calf, straighten the leg and flex your foot, pulling your toes up toward your shin — it feels counterintuitive, and it works. Standing and pressing the foot flat can help too.
To make cramps less likely: gentle calf stretches before bed, regular walks during the day, staying well hydrated, and a warm bath in the evening to loosen everything up before you sleep. And for end-of-day swelling: put your feet up whenever you honestly can, circle your ankles while you sit, and keep drinking water — it sounds backwards, but steady hydration actually helps your body manage fluid.
None of these are exotic remedies. They're small, repeatable kindnesses, and at week 24, small and repeatable is exactly what works.
The glucose screening test (coming up: weeks 24–28)
Somewhere in the next few weeks, your doctor will schedule a test you'll want on your radar: the glucose screening. It's a routine check for gestational diabetes — a temporary blood-sugar condition that can appear in pregnancy. Screening matters because blood sugar running high can encourage a baby to grow very large and can raise risks around the birth; catching it means your team can help you manage it early, and early management makes a real difference.
Here's how the first test usually goes: you'll drink a small bottle of very sweet glucose drink — most moms describe it as flat soda — then you wait about an hour, and your blood is drawn. That's it. For this first screening, many doctors say you don't need to fast beforehand, but practices vary, so ask yours when you book.
Bring a book or your phone for the wait, and be aware the drink makes some women feel briefly queasy — sit down, breathe, it passes. Many moms bring a protein snack to eat right after the blood draw, and future-you will be grateful for it. Results usually come back within a few days.
If your number is in the normal range, you're finished with sugar tests entirely. If the screening comes back above the cutoff, that is not a diagnosis — it's an invitation to the longer, diagnostic test, which involves fasting and a few blood draws over about three hours.
Plenty of women who take the longer test pass it completely. And if gestational diabetes is diagnosed, hear this clearly: it is common, it is manageable with food choices, gentle movement, and monitoring guided by your team, and it is not something you caused or failed at.