Week 36

Your Baby’s Development

The wrinkly, tiny fetus you may have seen on earlier ultrasounds has given way to an almost plump baby. There is fat on your baby’s cheeks, and powerful sucking muscles also contribute to your baby’s full face. Your baby now weighs a little under 6 pounds (2,721 grams).

The bones that make up your baby’s skull can move relative to one another and overlap each other while your baby’s head is inside your pelvis. This phenomenon is called molding, and it helps the baby pass through the birth canal. Don’t be surprised if your baby arrives with a pointy or misshapen head! After a few hours or days, your baby’s head will be back to a rounded shape.

Your Body

Starting this week, you may begin to see your health care provider every week. Your doctor or midwife may give you an internal exam to determine if cervical effacement (thinning of the cervix) or dilation (opening of the cervix) has begun. You may experience engagement (also known as lightening), which is when the baby drops into the mother’s pelvis in preparation for labor. Your appetite may return because the baby is no longer putting as much pressure on your stomach and intestines, and if you’ve been experiencing heartburn, the baby’s descent may somewhat alleviate it.

Week 37

Your Baby’s Development

This week, your baby is considered full-term! But your baby hasn’t stopped growing yet. He or she continues to develop fat at the rate of half an ounce (14 grams) a day. In general, boys weigh more than girls at birth.

Your baby has developed enough coordination to grasp with the fingers. If shown a bright light, your baby may turn toward it in your uterus.

Your Body

After this week, you may lose the mucous plug that sealed off your uterus from infection. The mucous plug can be lost a few weeks, days, or hours before labor and is thick, yellowish, and may be tinged with blood (the mucous plug is also called bloody show). As the cervix dilates in preparation for the labor, the plug is discharged from the body. Be sure to speak with your health care provider about any discharge you may be having.

Week 38

Your Baby’s Development

Your baby weighs about 6 pounds, 6 ounces (2,900 grams) by now and measures about 13.4 inches (34 cm) in length from crown to rump. Fat is still accumulating, although growth is slower now. You may notice that your weight gain has decreased or ceased.

Since your baby has had the muscles to suck and swallow amniotic fluid, waste material has been accumulating in his or her intestines. Cells shed from the intestines, dead skin cells, and lanugo hair are some of the waste products that contribute to meconium, a greenish-black substance that constitutes your baby’s first bowel movement.

If you’re having a boy, his testicles have descended into the scrotum, unless he has a condition called undescended testicle. If you’re having a girl, the labia are now completely developed.

Your Body

Because your baby is engaged in your pelvis, your bladder is extremely compressed, making frequent bathroom trips a necessity.

Have you and your partner made a decision about circumcision? Circumcision is a surgical procedure to remove the foreskin of the penis in male babies. For some parents the decision to circumcise is a religious one. For others, the choice is not as easily made. Talk to your health care provider about the issues surrounding circumcision, including pain relief options for the baby.

Week 39

Your Baby’s Development

Umbilical cords, which carry nutrients from the placenta to the baby, vary in size but average about 22 inches (55 cm) long and half an inch (1-2 cm) thick. Sometimes the umbilical cord can become wrapped around a baby’s neck. Generally, this doesn’t cause problems, although a cesarean delivery could be required if it causes pressure on the umbilical cord during labor or delivery. A true knot in the umbilical cord is much less common, occurring in only about 1% of pregnancies.

Most of the vernix that covered your baby’s skin has disappeared, as has the lanugo. Your body has been supplying the baby with antibodies through the placenta that will help the baby’s immune system fight infection for the first 6-12 months of life.

Your Body

Braxton Hicks contractions may become more pronounced. Also called “false labor,” these contractions may be as painful and strong as true labor contractions but do not become regular and do not increase in frequency as true contractions do.

Another sign of labor, the rupture of your amniotic sac, could happen any day now. When their water breaks, some women experience a large gush of water and some feel a steady trickle. Many women don’t experience their water breaking until they’re well into labor. Others need to have their water broken by their health care providers to get their labor started or to speed it up. If you think your water has broken or you are experiencing regular contractions, contact your health care provider.

Week 40

You Baby’s Development

After many weeks of anticipation and preparation, your baby is here! Or maybe not — only 5% of women deliver on their estimated due dates, and many first-time mothers find themselves waiting up to 2 weeks after their due date for their baby to arrive.

A baby born at 40 weeks weighs, on average, about 7 pounds, 4 ounces (3,300 grams) and measures about 20 inches (51 cm). Don’t expect your baby to look like the Gerber baby right off the bat — newborns often have heads temporarily misshapen from the birth canal and may be covered with vernix and blood. Your baby’s skin may have skin discolorations, dry patches, and rashes — these many variations are completely normal.

Because of the presence of your hormones in your baby’s system, your baby’s genitals (scrotum in boys and labia in girls) may appear enlarged. Your baby, whether a boy or a girl, may even secrete milk from the tiny nipples. This should disappear in a few days and is completely normal.

Right after birth, your health care provider will suction mucus out of your baby’s mouth and nose, and you’ll hear that long-awaited first cry. Your baby may then be placed on your stomach, and the umbilical cord will be cut — often by the baby’s dad, if he chooses to do the honors! A series of quick screening tests, such as the Apgar score, will be performed to assess your baby’s responsiveness and vital signs, and he or she will be weighed and measured. If your pregnancy was high risk, or if a cesarean section was necessary, a neonatologist (a doctor who specializes in newborn intensive care) will be present at your delivery to take care of your baby right away. If your baby needs any special care to adjust to life outside the womb, it will be given — and then your newborn will be placed in your waiting arms.

Your Body

This week you’ll experience the moment you’ve been anticipating — your introduction to your baby! Before you can meet your baby, though, you have to go through labor and delivery. You may have learned about the three stages of birth in your prenatal classes. The first stage of labor works to thin and stretch your cervix by contracting your uterus at regular intervals. The second stage of labor is when you push your baby into the vaginal canal and out of your body. The third and final stage of labor is when you deliver the placenta.

If you don’t go into labor within a week of your due date, your health care provider may recommend you receive a nonstress test, which monitors fetal heart rate and movement to be sure that the baby is receiving adequate oxygen and that the nervous system is responding. Talk to your health care provider to find out more about this test.

Sometimes mother nature may need a little coaxing. If your labor isn’t progressing, or if your health or your baby’s health requires it, your health care provider may induce labor by artificially rupturing the membranes or by administering the hormone oxytocin or other medications. If your pregnancy is high risk, or if there are any other potential complications, you may require a cesarean section delivery.

Some women know ahead of time that they will be delivering via cesarean section and are able to schedule their baby’s “birth day” well in advance. If you’re one of them, you’ve probably been able to prepare yourself emotionally and mentally for the birth — which can help to lessen the feelings of disappointment that many mothers who are unable to deliver vaginally experience. But even if you have to undergo a cesarean section that wasn’t planned, rest assured that you’ll still be able to bond with your baby. It might not be the birth experience you imagined, but your beautiful newborn has arrived nonetheless. The months of waiting are over!

Good luck with your baby!

source:   http://kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_calendar/pregnancy_calendar_intro.html