Week 34: your baby is the size of a short-beaked echidna

Your fetus now weighs about 2.1 kg, roughly a small short-beaked echidna, a spiny, ant-eating animal found across Australia and New Guinea. It is one of only five mammals in the world that lay eggs.

The echidna is a bundle of oddities. It lays a single soft egg directly into a pouch, where the baby, adorably called a puggle, hatches and laps up milk from patches of skin, since echidnas have no nipples.

It has no teeth, senses the electrical fields of prey through its snout, and when frightened it either curls into a spiny ball or digs straight down, sinking into the earth until only its spines show.

Meanwhile, inside you

Your fetus this week has a central nervous system and lungs that are maturing steadily. If they were born now, they would likely do well with a little support. They are mostly just growing and rehearsing from here.