Sorry if you got an email with this post before it was ready. There’s no better time for this gif:
Anyway, welcome to the most recent installment of my fetal development series, helping us conceptualize the size and incredible growth of a baby at different points in pregnancy!
In honor of the birthday of James Tiberius Kirk on March 22 (to be fair, in 2233), I’m excited to present the Trekkie installment for this series.
I’ve loved Star Trek for years, and I’ve even taught a class with Star Trek as the running theme! So this post was especially fun for me to write.
As always, please remember that while these comparisons may not be exactly reflective of any one particular baby, they give us a sense of the incredible growth that humans experience during the first nine months of their development.
Fetal Development: Star Trek edition
Week 8: Baby is the length, head-to-bottom, of two pips from ST Voyager (at .375 inches in diameter each).
Week 9: Baby is as tall, head-to-bottom, as an IDIC pin (⅞ inches).
Week 10: Baby weighs the same as Spock’s additional ear real estate at .176 oz
Week 11: Baby’s length from head to bottom is growing to the width of a Voyager Combadge, which is 4.5 cm.
Week 12: And jumping from Voyager to TNG, a sitting Baby is now taller than a TNG Combadge at 5.08cm.
Week 13: Baby is now so big that we can start measuring their length head to toe instead of head to bottom! And with that measurement, they’re as tall as the diameter of Sisko’s baseball (2.86-2.94 inches).
Week 14: Baby is as long as a saucer from the USS Enterprise Ship’s Dinnerware Service (6.25 inch in diameter).
Week 15: At 16-17 cm long, Baby is now about as long as the inside of LaForge’s visor.
Week 16: Baby weighs almost as much as a hypospray or as the Klingon dictionary (each around 6 oz).
Week 17: Baby is as long as both of Spock’s ears, lined up to each other (about 8 inches).
Week 18: Baby is as tall as the smaller rations packs from Enterprise are long (9 inches).
Week 19: At 9.5 oz, Baby weighs the same as a communicator.
Week 20: Baby is almost as tall as a TOS triviewer (10.5 inches).
Week 21: Baby is about as tall as Spot, Data’s cat, whose height I can best estimate at about 11 inches.
Week 22: Baby is as long as a Romulan knife from Picard (295 mm).
Week 23: At 12 inches, Baby is as long as a tricorder.
Week 24: Baby’s now outgrown even a large dilithium cluster (typically measuring 12 to 12.5 inches).
Week 25: Baby weighs the same as the Star Fleet Technical Manual (1.75 lbs).
Week 26: Baby is now as tall as a Teplan phonograph is wide (13.5 in).
Week 27: Baby has grown to the size of the most popular current interpretation of the Horga’hn, the Horga’hn lamp (14 in).
Week 28: Baby is now as long as a Ressikan Flute (15 in).
Week 29: Baby is as long as three standard sized tribbles (10.2cm long each) and a small tribble (8.8cm), all lined up in a row.
Week 30: Baby now weighs the same as a Bat’leth (3.3lbs – I question this, because I can’t imagine a real Bat’leth being so light; but, you know, the Klingons are good engineers, so I can’t question it too much).
Week 31: Baby weighs the same as a 3D chess set (with pieces): 3.98 pounds.
Week 32: At 16 inches long, Baby is now half the height of the official original USS Enterprise Model.
Week 33: Baby weighs almost as much as the first real-life tricorder invented, 5 lbs (Self-funded team led by an ER doctor wins ‘Star Trek’-inspired competition – The Washington Post).
Week 34: Baby is about as long as four hyposprays, lined up one after another (18 in).
Week 35: Baby weighs the same as five phasers (5.72 lbs).
Week 36: Baby is as long as two phasers lined up next to each other (just over 19 in).
Week 37: Baby now weighs about as much as Spock’s lyre, at 6.5 lbs.
Week 38: At 19.5 inches, Baby now comfortably takes up an entire half of the Captain’s command chair.
Week 39: At just over 50 cm long, Baby is about the length of 5 standard-sized tribbles, lined up one after another.
Week 40: At 20 inches long, Baby is about the size of a standard replicator.
Week 41: At just around 8 lbs, Baby weighs about the same as Spot, Data’s cat.
Week 42: At around 21 or 22 inches long, Baby is about half as tall as NOMAD.
Abby the Sociologist Doula 