At 28 weeks, a baby is about 25 cm (9.8 inches) long from crown to rump and weighs around 1,000 grams, or 2.2 pounds. That’s roughly the size of a large eggplant. The baby looks recognizably human at this point, with defined facial features, open eyes, and a body that’s starting to fill out with fat beneath the skin.
Size and Overall Shape
The 2.2-pound mark is a meaningful milestone. Up until the late second trimester, babies are mostly lean, with limbs that look long relative to their bodies. By 28 weeks, fat is accumulating under the skin, giving the baby a rounder, softer appearance. The wrinkled, almost translucent look of earlier weeks is fading as that fat layer thickens. The skin shifts from reddish and thin to something closer to the smooth, opaque skin you’d expect at birth, though it’s still quite delicate.
Facial Features and Hair
A 28-week baby has fully formed eyelashes, and the eyes can now open and close. The irises have some pigment, though final eye color won’t be set for months after birth. The baby can blink and even responds to bright light filtering through the uterine wall.
Hair on the head may be visibly growing longer, though the amount varies widely from baby to baby. Some have a full head of hair at this stage, others very little. The body is still covered in lanugo, a fine, downy hair that helps hold a waxy coating called vernix in place. Both serve as insulation and skin protection in the amniotic fluid, and most of this hair will shed before or shortly after birth.
Brain Development and Sleep Cycles
The brain is going through one of its most active phases of development. Around 26 to 28 weeks, true sleep cycles begin for the first time. Before this point, fetal brain activity is relatively undifferentiated. Now the baby starts cycling between distinct states: quiet sleep (similar to deep sleep), REM sleep (the dreaming phase), and brief periods of quiet wakefulness.
These sleep cycles aren’t just a sign of neurological progress. They’re actively driving it. REM sleep plays a critical role in building the sensory and motor systems the baby will need after birth. If you notice your baby seems to have predictable active and quiet periods throughout the day, you’re likely feeling these cycles from the outside.
Lung and Organ Development
The lungs are one of the last major organs to mature, and at 28 weeks they’re still a work in progress. The cells responsible for producing surfactant, a slippery substance that keeps the tiny air sacs in the lungs from collapsing, are present but not yet producing enough to support independent breathing. A baby born at this stage would almost certainly need help breathing while the lungs catch up.
Other organs are further along. The digestive system is practicing by processing small amounts of swallowed amniotic fluid. The kidneys are producing urine. The heart has been beating for months and is now pumping a much larger volume of blood to support the baby’s rapid growth.
Movement at 28 Weeks
You’re entering the stage where your baby’s movements become more noticeable and more important to track. By 28 weeks, many providers recommend starting “kick counts,” a simple daily check-in on fetal activity. The goal is to feel 10 movements (kicks, rolls, flutters, or swishes) within a two-hour window. Most babies hit that number well within an hour.
The baby is big enough now that you can often tell the difference between a kick and a roll. You might feel hiccups as small, rhythmic pulses. Movement patterns tend to become more predictable as you get to know your baby’s schedule. If you go two hours without feeling 10 movements, that’s worth a call to your provider.
What 28 Weeks Means for Viability
Twenty-eight weeks marks the beginning of the third trimester, and it’s a significant threshold for survival outside the womb. Babies born at 28 weeks have a survival rate between 80 and 90 percent, and only about 10 percent experience long-term health complications. That’s a dramatic improvement over even a few weeks earlier, driven largely by advances in neonatal care and the baby’s own rapid organ development during this period.
A baby born now would still need weeks in the NICU, primarily for breathing support and help with temperature regulation and feeding. But the odds are strongly in favor of a healthy outcome, which is reassuring context as you picture what your baby looks like at this stage: small but fully formed, increasingly alert, and building the reserves of fat and lung capacity needed for life on the outside.