Week 36: your baby is the size of an American lobster

Your fetus now weighs about 2.6 kg, the weight of a large American lobster. That animal is probably older than you are: lobsters grow slowly and never really stop, and the biggest ones on record are thought to have been over a century old.

Its two claws do different jobs, one for crushing and one for cutting, and which side is which is decided in the first months of life. It tastes with its feet, smells with its antennae, and sees poorly.

To grow, it has to climb out of its own shell, including the lining of its stomach and eyestalks, and then hide for weeks while the new one hardens. Its blood is blue.

Meanwhile, inside you

Your fetus this week is considered close to full term. They are shedding most of their lanugo and vernix, some of which they swallow, forming the first dark bowel movement they will pass after birth.