36 Weeks - 28 Days to Go!

How your baby's growing:


Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position. But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly.

Yippee!! 36 weeks is here! I saw Dr. Lee yesterday and everything went great at our appointment; my weight gain is steady - down a little from last week (but I had a big jump last week, so it was good it came back down a little), BP is 110/60, and no protein in my urine. Miss S's heartbeat sounds beautiful and my belly measured right on track. Dr. Lee took a couple cultures to be sent out and I had labwork done as well. He did an internal check and I am about 1.5-2 cm dilated and 50% effaced! I was only dilated to a 2 and not effaced at all at our 38 week appointment with Fiona, so my cervix is a little ahead of the game compared to last time! We'll see if there are any changes after our appointment next week - that will probably be more telling than anything else. I'm having a decent amount of pressure today, off and on.

I keep thinking there's no real reason for her to come early, but I also keep wondering if I'll make it much more than 2 more weeks at this point. We shall see!

It was good to rest yesterday; I'm still feeling pretty wiped today but not nearly as much as yesterday. I got a LOT of extra sleep yesterday and still slept like a rock last night which I was thankful for. I was worried with all the napping I did that I wouldn't be able to sleep well last night.

I guess that's the update! Going to eat some breakfast and hope today passes quickly and peacefully! :)