Week 39: your baby is the size of a manul

Your fetus now weighs about 3.3 kg, roughly a manul, also known as Pallas's cat: a small, permanently furious-looking wildcat of the Central Asian steppe.

No cat has denser fur. It grows longest on the belly and tail, insulation for lying on frozen ground, and it is the reason a manul looks like a grey cushion with a face. The face is flat and the ears sit low and wide on the skull, so the cat can look over a rock without breaking its own outline.

Manuls do not chase. They stalk, freeze, and press themselves flat against the ground, hunting pikas across some of the coldest, emptiest country on the continent, and they are notoriously hard to keep healthy in captivity.

Meanwhile, inside you

Your fetus this week is fully developed and ready. Everything from here is a waiting game, and it could begin at any moment.