The Gift of Life

How your baby’s growing:
Your baby now weighs approximately 3.75 pounds/ 1.7 kilograms and is about 17 inches / 42 centimetres long from head to toe. Although his lungs won’t be fully developed until just before birth, your little one is inhaling amniotic fluid to exercise his lungs and practise breathing.

Some babies have a head of hair already, others have only a few wisps. Thick hair at birth doesn’t necessarily mean thick hair later on but children with fine hair in childhood usually have thinner hair in adulthood.

How your life’s changing:
Your blood volume (the plasma plus red blood cells) is now about 40 to 50 percent greater than before you became pregnant to accommodate the needs of you and your baby. (This extra amount also helps make up for any blood you’ll lose when giving birth.) You’re also gaining a pound a week now, and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. With your uterus pushing up near your diaphragm and adding pressure on your abdomen, you may be dealing with heartburn more often or feeling a little short of breath. To help with shortness of breath, try eating smaller quantities more often (rather than three daily feasts) and sleeping propped up. Those smaller meals should help with the heartburn, too.

As your baby grows, the increasing concentration of weight in your growing belly causes a change in your posture and a shift in your center of gravity. Plus, your abdominal muscles are stretching, hormones are making your ligaments more lax, and your growing uterus may even press on some nerves. All of this can contribute to low back pain and possibly to some pain in your buttocks and thighs as well. Let your caregiver know if you have severe pain or feel numbness or tingling in your legs.

Source: BabyCenter

This is it! I am almost halfway through with my last trimester of pregnancy. And mind you, it isn’t getting any easier, with my tummy growing bigger and bigger by the day.

I have been having trouble sleeping once again. Unlike in my second trimester, these days, I’ve been a very light sleeper. Without fail, I get up in the middle of the night just to pee. It’s also been difficult for me to change sleeping positions because of my heavy tummy and even finding the RIGHT position can be really taxing. It doesn’t help also to have Baby awake late in the evenings. The constant squirming and kicks really do keep me from having a good night’s sleep.

We have just been to our second session of the antenatal classes at the hospital last night. I suppose, as I am now entering the last few weeks of pregnancy, I might as well prepare/organise all the stuff we’re going to need when i do finally go into labor. The midwife gave us a pretty long list of suggested items that we can take to the hospital so it’s best to start packing early lest we forget any important items.

Next antenatal check-up is scheduled next week. We will be seeing both our GP and midwife.

How your baby’s growing:
Your baby’s arms, legs and body continue to fill out — and they are finally proportional in size to her head. She weighs about 3.3 pounds/1.5 kilograms and looks more like a newborn. She measures about 16 inches/ 41 centimetres from crown to toe.

You may notice your baby isn’t moving around as much. Don’t worry; she’s just running out of space in your uterus. As long as you can feel her squirming, you’ll know she’s just fine. By this stage, most babies have turned head down into the “cephalic” position ready for birth. A few take a little longer and a few remain stubbornly upright in the “breech” position. If your baby is breech, there’s still time for her to turn. Believe it or not, she still has plenty of growing to do. You can expect her to gain at least two more pounds/900 grams before delivery.

Your baby’s organs are continuing to mature and she is passing water from her bladder: good practice for the urinating she’ll do after she’s born. Soon you can wonder what your baby is wishing for — brain scans have shown that fetuses have periods of dream sleep around month eight.

How your life’s changing:
You’ve probably gained three to four pounds / 1.3 to 1.8 kilograms this month. Gaining a pound/450 grams a week is quite normal during the last trimester as your baby has a final growth spurt before birth.

You may have noticed some leaking of colostrum, or “premilk,” from your breasts lately. Some expectant moms experience this leaking, others don’t; either way, it’s perfectly normal and you can rest assured that your body is doing what it’s meant to do. If you’re leaking, you may want to tuck some nursing pads in your bra to protect your clothes. And if you plan to breastfeed, you might also want to pick up a nursing bra. If your current bra is too snug, go ahead and wear the nursing bra now. (When shopping, choose a nursing bra at least one cup size bigger than you need now to accommodate the swelling that will take place when your milk comes in.)

Have you noticed the muscles in your uterus tightening now and then? Some women feel these random contractions — called Braxton Hicks contractions — in the second half of pregnancy. Lasting from 30 to 60 seconds, they’re nonrhythmic and irregular and, at this point in your pregnancy, they should be infrequent and not painful. (When you’re within a few weeks of your due date, it’s normal for Braxton Hicks contractions to become more frequent and even somewhat painful; in fact, they’re often called “false labor” because sometimes it can be hard to tell them from the real thing.) Until 37 weeks, though, your baby is still premature. So if you’re getting frequent contractions (even if they don’t hurt), it may be a sign of preterm labor. Call your practitioner immediately if you have an increase or change in vaginal discharge (especially if it’s watery, mucus-like, or pink or tinged with blood), abdominal pain or menstrual-like cramping, more than four contractions in an hour, an increase in pressure in the pelvic area, or low back pain, especially if you didn’t have it before.

Source: BabyCenter

We saw the midwife last Tuesday for another check-up. This time it was not Tracy (as she was on holiday), but Wendy who evaluated my present condition. She was a very cheerful and pleasant woman and we liked her a lot because she was very organized and thorough in her assessments. She said she liked what she saw as everything was found to be normal. We might see her again at the antenatal classes or maybe when I give birth in the delivery suite of the Canberra Hospital, where she informed us she was currently assigned.

Speaking of antenatal classes, we are scheduled to attend our first session on Tuesday night. We will be meeting other expectant parents who might also be in the same stage of pregnancy as I am. It’ll be good if we can share our own experiences and compare notes on how our pregnancy has been so far.

If you’ve noticed, I’ve written the words “breech position” in bold letters. Yes, Baby (at least since our most recent check-up) is still in a transverse position, meaning Baby’s head is currently in the left side of my tummy while the legs are at the right side. The midwife taught me to try to be on all fours at least 10 minutes a day to give Baby a chance (or space) to turn around and ultimately be in a cephalic position. Let’s pray Baby cooperates so we won’t have any trouble by the time I finally give birth.

Your baby’s lungs and digestive tract are almost fully developed. While your baby may soon slow up growing in length, (he measures about 15.7 inches/40 centimetres from crown to toe by now), he will continue to gain weight until he’s born.

This week your baby continues to open and shut his eyes. He can probably see what’s going on in utero, distinguish light from dark and even track a light source. If you shine a light on your stomach, your baby may move his head to follow the light or even reach out to touch the moving glow. Some researchers think baring your stomach to light stimulates visual development. But don’t expect 20/20 vision when your baby is born — newborns can see a distance of only about 8 to 12 inches/ 20 to 30 centimetres. (Children with normal vision don’t reach 20/20 vision until about age 7 to 9.) To complete the picture, your baby now has eyebrows and eyelashes.

A pint and a half/around a litre of amniotic fluid now surrounds your baby but that volume decreases as he gets bigger and has less room in your uterus. As you and the baby continue to grow, don’t be alarmed if you feel breathless, as if you can’t get enough air; it’s just your uterus pressing against your diaphragm. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though. At about 34 weeks (or just before delivery, if this is your second or third pregnancy), your baby’s head will move down into your pelvis as the baby gets into the right position for birth. That will make breathing and eating a lot easier.

Source: BabyCenter

We just got back from our vacation in Manila. It was five weeks long and my tummy has definitely grown! At the moment, I measure thirty eight inches at the level of my belly button (which, by the way, is now an outtie!).

During my second week in Manila, I visited my old OB-GYNE and saw our little angel once again via a transabdominal ultrasound scan. It confirmed our baby’s sex for the second time. My doctor said Baby is quite malikot and was constantly changing positions in the womb while my doctor was doing the scan. Baby was found to be of normal weight and length.

My OB-GYNE, who is also a reproductive endocrinologist, also advised me to take iron and calcium supplements, aside from the regular prenatal vitamins I was already taking. She also told me to breastfeed our baby for at least six months. After which, I can go back to taking progesterone pills (which would also serve as contraceptive) to help manage my endometriosis as well. Hopefully by then, I can see a specialist here in Oz just to monitor my condition.

On Tuesday, we are scheduled to go back to the midwife for another prenatal check-up. I hope everything will be fine based on her assessment.