Baby Countdown!

Full Term Fetus — 40 Weeks Pregnant

Week 40 of Pregnancy: Your Baby Prepares for Birth

This is the moment your baby (and you) has been waiting for! Now officially full-term, a baby born this week will weigh in the neighborhood of seven and a half pounds and measure anywhere from 19 to 22 inches. But many babies check in smaller or bigger than this and are both perfect and perfectly healthy.

The first thing you’re likely to look for when baby makes his or her dramatic (and possibly fashionably late) entrance: proof positive that he is actually a he, or she is actually a she. That major mystery solved once and for all, you’ll also notice that baby (besides being cute as can be — and yours!) is wearing a little leftover travel dust, consisting of blood, vernix, lanugo, and amniotic fluid. From your baby’s perspective, you’ll look a bit blurry (babies at birth can focus only about an inch away), but that’s okay. With all the tears of joy you’ll probably be shedding, your baby will look a little blurry to you too.
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You’ll notice your little one is still curled into the fetal position (though his or her arms and legs may flail a bit). That’s because after nine months in such cramped quarters, it’ll take a while before your baby realizes that he or she has room to spread out. And because it’s the only position he or she has really known, it’s a comforting one to be in. (That’s also why so many newborns like to be swaddled, it reminds them of your uterus.)

Be sure to say hello to your new arrival. Your baby is very likely to recognize the sound of your voice — and that of your partner.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting

Fetal Skills – 39 Weeks Pregnant

Week 39 of Pregnancy: Fetal Skills Expand

Your baby’s weight and height have probably increased only a little from last week (and your overstretched skin is probably grateful for that). But his or her brain is still developing rapidly (a pace that continues during the first three years of life), with changes you’ll be able to recognize firsthand as your baby’s skill-packed bag of tricks expands almost daily.   Heard that babies cry a lot?  There’s definitely truth to that rumor — as you’ll find out soon enough (and usually during the middle of the night).  But what you may not have heard is that tiny babies don’t produce tiny tears when they cry, since their tear ducts aren’t open for business yet.  While you’ll be consoling your crying baby right from the get-go, it won’t be until sometime after the first month that you’ll be wiping tears off those chubby cheeks.

Your baby’s skin has now finally changed from pink to white (no matter how dark-skinned he or she will be eventually; pigmentation will occur soon following birth). That’s because a thicker fat layer has been deposited over the blood vessels (making your baby’s cheeks —  both kinds — pinchably and kissably round).

Fetal Skills – 39 Weeks Pregnant — Your Baby’s Development This Week — WhatToExpect.com.

Preparing for Birth – 38 Weeks Pregnant

Week 38 of Pregnancy: Preparing for Birth

Only two more weeks (or plus two more, max) before your baby makes his or her appearance. And what an adorable appearance that will be! Your little one isn’t so little anymore — weighing in at close to seven pounds and hitting the height charts at the 21-inch mark (or less).   As you prepare (best you can) for baby’s ETA, he or she is also getting ready, big time. Vernix and lanugo continue to shed from your baby’s body into the amniotic fluid. Your baby swallows that amniotic fluid (yum yum?) and some of it winds up in his or her intestines where it — along with other shed cells, bile, and other waste products (triple yum) — will turn into your baby’s first bowel movement (meconium) and perhaps your first diaper change.

Your baby’s lungs continue to mature as more and more surfactant is secreted (remember — it helps prevent the lungs from sticking to each other when your baby begins to breathe…definitely a good thing).  All systems, almost go!

Preparing for Birth – 38 Weeks Pregnant — Your Baby’s Development This Week — WhatToExpect.com.

Full Term Baby Birth – 37 Weeks Pregnant

Week 37 of Pregnancy: Full-Term Baby

With just three more weeks to go and at about six and a half pounds (though weight and height vary from fetus to fetus), your baby is doing just fine. You can expect weight gain to be about half an ounce per day. (Boys, though, are likely to be heavier at birth than girls. And here’s a bit of boy baby trivia to back that one up: Moms carrying boys tend to eat more than moms carrying girls — a foreshadowing of teenage refrigerator raids to come.)  Since your little one is considered full-term now, if your baby was to leave the wet nest this week, he or she would likely thrive. That’s because Mother Nature and you have done such a fine job.   So what’s keeping your little one busy while waiting it out until D-day? Practice, practice, practice. Your baby is simulating breathing by inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, sucking on his or her thumb, blinking, and pivoting from side to side (one day you feel the tushy on the left side, another day it has swung around to the right side). All these are skills needed for his or her next gig  — starring as newborn.

Here’s an interesting fact: Your baby’s head (which, by the way, is still growing) will, at birth, be the same size circumference as his or her hips, abdomen, and shoulders. And guess what’s making an impression (literally) these days on those shoulders and hips: fat — causing little dimples in those cute elbows and knees, shoulders and hip, and creases and folds in the neck and wrists.

Full Term Baby Birth – 37 Weeks Pregnant — Your Baby’s Development This Week — WhatToExpect.com.

Fetal Skull and Bones — 36 Weeks Pregnant

Week 36 of Pregnancy: Fetal Skull and Bones

Your baby’s skull isn’t the only soft structure in his or her little body. Most of your baby’s bones and cartilage are quite soft as well (they’ll harden over the first few years of life) — allowing for an easier journey as your baby squeezes through the birth canal at delivery (and less prodding and poking for Mom along the way). The skull bones are also not fused together yet so that the head can easily (well, relatively easily) maneuver through the birth canal.

So your little bruiser (who you’ve now learned won’t be bruising you all that much with those soft bones) is now about six pounds in weight and measures slightly more than 20 inches in length. Growth will experience a slowdown now, both so your baby will be able to fit the narrow passageway to the outside and also so he or she can store up all the energy needed for delivery.

By now, many of your baby’s systems are pretty mature, at least in baby terms — and just about ready for life on the outside. Blood circulation, for instance, has been perfected and your baby’s immune system has matured enough to protect him or her from infections outside the womb. Other systems, however, still need a few finishing touches. Once such notable example: digestion — which actually won’t be fully mature until sometime after birth. Why’s that? Inside his or her little gestational cocoon, your baby has relied on the umbilical cord for nutrition, meaning that the digestive system — though developed — hasn’t been operational. So your baby will take the first year or two to bring that system up to speed.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting

Anytime now

As you know, I pre-wrote the weekly updates so that I never forgot to publish them. Because birth can come early, I can’t predict when to stop those posts. I chose to set them to publish every week right up to week 40. When Little One actually comes, I’ll call family members, but don’t expect an instant update on the blog…I’ll update the blog when I get a chance after I get home from the hospital.

Fetal Weight Gain – 35 Weeks Pregnant

Week 35 of Pregnancy: Fetal Weight Gain

At about 20 inches and five and a half pounds (but with about five more weeks to grow), most of your baby’s growth over the next month or so before you meet will be in weight (with a gain of anywhere from one pound to several), not height (baby’s pretty much reached the in utero limit in that department).  Accordingly, fat continues to accumulate at a rapid pace these days (on baby, not just on your hips). Back in the middle of your pregnancy, your baby’s weight was made up of only two percent fat; now that percentage has soared to closer to 15 percent (and will increase to 30 percent at term). Which means your baby’s once skinny arms and legs are now quite plump…and irresistibly, squeezably soft.   Also continuing to grow at an amazing pace is your baby’s brain power. Luckily, the part that surrounds that amazing brain — the skull — remains soft. And for good reason: A soft skull will allow your baby to squeeze more easily through the birth canal. (Mother Nature was really thinking this one through — imagine trying to push out a rock-hard head…ouch!)

Fetal Weight Gain – 35 Weeks Pregnant — Your Baby’s Development This Week — WhatToExpect.com.

Gender Differences – 34 Weeks Pregnant

Week 34 of Pregnancy: Gender Differences

Your baby could be as tall as 20 inches  right now and about five pounds. Need a visual? Hold a five-pound bag of flour in your arms and imagine it’s your soon-to-be-born baby (cradle it, and you’ll only get strange looks in the baking aisle). Then stack three such bags one on top of the other (and get ready for some more strange looks, maybe from the same clerks who saw you grinning and holding that one-pound box of sugar a few weeks ago). That’s how tall your baby is now. (Now go bake some oatmeal raisin cookies with all that flour!)   If your little doughboy is, well, a boy, then you’ll be pleased to know that this week his testicles are making their way down from his abdomen to his scrotum. (Some baby boys — three to four percent — are born with undescended testicles, but they usually make the trip down sometime before the first birthday.)   Your baby’s fingernails now reach the end of the fingertips and may even curl over the tip, making a manicure one of the first things you’ll need to do for your little bundle.

Gender Differences – 34 Weeks Pregnant — Your Baby’s Development This Week — WhatToExpect.com.

Fetal Immune System – 33 Weeks Pregnant

Week 33 of Pregnancy: Fetal Immune System

This week your baby may be anywhere between 17 to 19 inches in length and weigh more than four and a half pounds. At this stage in fetal development, your baby  could grow a full inch more this week alone — especially if he or she has been on the shorter side.  Weight gain can range from a third more growth to a full doubling before the big debut.   The level of amniotic fluid in your uterus has reached its maximum, making it likely that you have more baby than fluid now. That’s one reason why you’re probably feeling lots of nudges and pushes — there’s less liquid to cushion the blows. (Of course that means you’re even closer to your baby now!)   If your uterine walls had eyes, here’s what you’d see: your fetus acting more and more like a baby, with his or her eyes closing during sleep and opening while awake. And because those uterine walls are becoming thinner, more light penetrates the womb, helping your baby differentiate between day and night (now if only baby can remember that difference on the outside!).

And good news! Your baby has reached an important milestone about now: The development of his or her own immune system that (along with antibodies from you) will be able to provide protection from mild infections.

Fetal Immune System – 33 Weeks Pregnant — Your Baby’s Development This Week — WhatToExpect.com.

Fetal Position — 32 Weeks Pregnant

Week 32 of Pregnancy: Fetal Postion

This week your baby weighs almost four pounds and could be up to 19 inches long. And though that’s a head-to-toe length, your baby is actually back to a curled-up position (you try standing up in those cramped quarters!). You’re likely feeling tapping and squirming instead of your baby’s signature rocking and rolling. That’s because, while comfy, your baby is a bit tight for exercise space right now. Your baby has also probably settled into the head-down, bottoms-up position in your pelvis in prepartion for birth. That’s because the fetus’s head fits better at the bottom of your inverted, pear-shaped uterus. It also makes it easier during childbirth if your baby comes out head first. Fewer than five percent of babies prefer the bottom-down (or breech) position by full-term. Don’t worry if your baby hasn’t assumed the head-down position yet. There’s still a good chance he or she will flip head-side-down before birth — even in the tight confines of your uterus.

While your baby is still getting nourishment through the umbilical cord, it won’t be long before you’ll be bringing on the breast milk or formula (and soon after, the mashed carrots and peas). In anticipation of that momentous transition to mouth feeding, your baby’s digestive system is all set and ready to go.

And because your baby is accumulating more fat, his or her skin is finally turning opaque (like yours), which means those see-through days are over. Though weeks away from D-day, your baby’s looking more and more like a newborn.

And speaking of that big day, hope you’re resting up for it — because your bambino certainly is. In preparation for that big first date with you, your baby is sleeping like a baby — with sleep cycles of 20 to 40 minutes long (which would also account for the decrease in movement you’re likely feeling these days).

What to Expect When You’re Expecting