My Growing Baby
My growing baby is somewhere between 15 to 17 inches in length and weighs between 4 and 4 ½ pounds.*
My Pregnancy - Changes for my baby
My baby’s lungs are developing and maturing and will be one of the key focuses of development over the last several weeks. The toenails, fingernails, and skeleton are all formed.
My Pregnancy - Changes for me
Your uterus is getting further and further from your belly button and is now about 5 inches away. The increased size of your uterus and elevated placement may cause challenges to your breathing. From here on to the end of your pregnancy you will be gaining approximately a pound a week. Your blood volume is around 50% higher than before your pregnancy began. Much of this blood will be lost during giving birth.
My Pregnancy - Planning this week
Over the next four weeks you will be visiting with your healthcare provider ever other week. Once you reach week 36, more than likely your healthcare provider will bring you in weekly for a routine checkup. Hopefully, you are well into your childbirth education classes. You need to be making decisions about your baby’s name, storing your baby’s cord blood or not, the type of birth that you want, and making sure everything is ready at home for the baby.
My Pregnancy - Health Tips
Braxton Hicks contractions are uncomfortable. The good news is there are some steps you can take to help manage them a little better:
- Change positions; lie down if you have been standing or go for a walk if you have been sitting or laying
- Take a warm bath for 30 minutes or less
- Drink a couple of glasses of water, because contractions may be brought on by dehydration
- Drink a warm cup of herbal tea or milk
If doing any of these does not alleviate your contractions, you should contact your healthcare provider.
My Pregnancy - Tips for my partner
Most partners want to be a part of the birth process, so you need to be looking at your work schedule and question if there is anything that might interfere with your participation. If you travel with your work, you will probably want to see what you can do about postponing and squeezing in trips before the last two weeks of pregnancy. The majority of women do not give birth on their due date, so that is not a good guide for planning your work trips. You might also start looking for ways to work from home - talk to your boss and see if a combined office/home schedule might be feasible. The main thing is that you start now looking at how work may change, interfere or help you during this final stage of pregnancy.
* All measurements are provided as a general guide for common pregnancy development which may vary depending on the nutrition, mother’s health or accurate dating of conception. Every pregnancy is unique and may be experienced differently even for the same woman. It is important to undertand that babies develop at a different rate even before they are born. The purpose of this developmental information is to give you a general idea of how your baby is growing, and you must remember that your baby’s growth may vary from that which is outlined.