29 Weeks Pregnant: Baby Update
Your baby is now between 15 and 17 inches long and is tipping the scales at 2.5 to 4 pounds. Their brain is developing neural connections, their liver is a little factory churning out lots of red blood cells, and your baby-to-be’s bones are continuing to turn from soft cartilage to hard bone.
30 Weeks Pregnant: Your Baby at 30 Weeks
It’s likely your baby is kicking a little less these days, but don’t panic. Your baby-to-be is beginning to outgrow the “womb-room” they rented. (It’s getting pretty tight to maneuver in there!) Your bub growing fast—weighing about 3 pounds now—and they’ll gain about a half pound per week until…their lease is up!
Your bub’s head, which was previously so much larger than their body, is now in proportion. And, if you shine a dull or red light at your belly, they just might turn to look at it (and turn away from a very bright light)! Your baby-to-be’s vision is about as clear now as it will be at birth, but still extremely nearsighted by our standards (about 20/400). In their first week of life, your baby will be especially interested in looking at things that are red or have strong contrast. (That’s why infants like looking at black-and-white white patterns…and the line where your face meets your dark hair or the contrast of your eyes.) Your bub’s best vision is 9 to 18 inches away…which is perfect, because that’s exactly the distance between your face and theirs while feeding.
31 Weeks Pregnant: Your Baby at 31 Weeks
Your little hitchhiker is ¾ of the way to her destination!
Size of baby at 31 weeks pregnant: Your baby is as big as a pineapple.
And, it’s starting to get a little snug inside your belly. She weighs 3 pounds (give or take a few ounces) and is as tall as a bowling pin (15” or 1-2” longer). During these final months of pregnancy, your baby’s brain and skinny little body will do some serious bulking up. She will be working on growing some chubby thighs and pudgy cheeks. She’s still kicking a lot but has less and less room to do so. The bigger she gets, the harder it will be to take a deep breath.
From now to 40 weeks, your baby’s brain will double in weight! In fact, her development has already made lots of progress. For example, her senses are totally clicking: She can taste, hear, see and feel. And when she’s born, she’ll even be able to recognize the distinct smell of her very own mom. (Newborns put next to pads soaked with their mom’s milk versus the milk of another woman…will prefer to turn to their mother’s milk! Now, that’s amazing!)
Baby at 32 Weeks
By this week, the digestive system is almost ready to go. She’s been practicing her swallowing skills with little sips of amniotic fluid, which is—in large part—made from her pee. She has yet to take her first number 2 (that’ll happen during or shortly after birth). Her bones are soft and pliable. Some babies already have a full head of hair at 32 weeks, others just peach fuzz. She has fingernails, too. (If you’re having a boy, his testicles may have dropped into his scrotum by now…they started out inside his abdomen!)
She’s moving around and kicking a little less, not only because she’s pretty tightly packaged—your belly is mostly baby now, whereas a few months ago it was mostly amniotic fluid—but also because she’s sleeping so much of the time.
Research shows that by this age, a baby’s brain waves are similar to an adult’s while sleeping. During sleep, your baby is creating early memories (like the sound of your voice and familiar flavors—like garlic and basil—that float from your digestive tract, through your blood into her amniotic swimming pool). And, she is also having REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, also called active sleep. That’s the time when we dream. Wonder what she’s picturing during her reverie?
33 Weeks Pregnant: Your Baby at 33 Weeks
Your little one is thirsty lately. She’s drinking around a 16 ounces of her amniotic fluid every day. That sounds a little gross, but what is truly gross is that she then pees it out—into the amniotic fluid—and then drinks it all over again!
On the totally great side of things, this same fluid is helping get her lungs ready for her dramatic entry into the world of air and breathing. Having lungs filled with liquid is fine for babies in the womb because all their oxygen comes from the blood being cycled—every second—through the umbilical cord. Amazingly, after birth, she’ll soon fill her lungs with air—drying up all that fluid almost instantly—and begin breathing air that will her sustain her through every day of the rest of her life.
In the meantime, her immune system has matured plenty, too. And to double and triple protect her, you’re still passing antibodies to her through the placenta and you can continue giving her protective antibodies through your breast milk.
34 Weeks Pregnant: Your Baby at 34 Weeks
At this point, your belly is mostly your almost 5-pound baby…so every time she moves, you really see it. Can you make out those tiny feet? They are probably near the top of your belly…as she settles into the normal head-down position, ready for delivery! (Breech babies—butt or feet first—are at only about 5% of births.) Her whole body is pretty much ready, babies born this week have a 99% survival rate.
She’s sleeping, sucking and slurping (drinking gulps of amniotic fluid flavored with whatever you just ate)! A thick, waxy layer of cream cheese-like vernix is smeared all over her body. She’ll shed most of that before the birth, but preemies often come out coated with it. This covering protects her skin—imagine if you were in a bathtub for 9 months! —and offers antimicrobial benefits after birth.
Your Baby at 35 Weeks
They’re likely over 5 pounds now and measure around 18 inches. Now, they’ll slow down growing longer, but continue packing away the ounces and getting pudgier. Their big job heading up to their birthday is to put on weight (which means you will too).
At 35 weeks, baby’s body is working hard to get their lungs, brain, and nervous system ready for their big day. But their circulatory and musculoskeletal systems are close to finished. Their bones are getting stronger (turning the cartilaginous ends into harder calcium), but their kneecaps haven’t formed, and their skull bones have not yet joined together. Because of these individual skull bones, your baby will actually be born with more bones than you have in your body.
Why is a baby born with multiple unfused skull bones? To make room for the growing brain! The size of a newborn’s head is about 75% of an adult head. And, by your kiddo’s 2nd birthday it will grow another 33% and almost reach adult size. (By 18 to 24 months the skull bones are permanently joined together.)
The skull is compressed, and the floating bones overlap during the birth process. This makes the head diameter ½ inch smaller to help babies squeeze through the birth canal.
Your newborn’s skull has two “soft spots” (also called fontanelles). These are like little lakes surrounded by touching islands of thin bone. There’s a 2-inch soft spot in the front and a fingertip-sized one in the back near the crown of the head. Each is covered with a very tough, but flexible, membrane, so the brain underneath is perfectly protected. It’s as durable as bone, so don’t worry about touching it when you stroke your baby’s head or shampoo the hair.
36 Weeks Pregnant: Baby Update
Your active little Kung-Fu master is now around 6 pounds, and you’re probably feeling every single ounce of that weight in your pelvis. The layer of lanugo that covers her body is shedding, and she’s also losing some vernix (though don’t be surprised if she’s still covered in plenty of it when she’s born!)
37 Weeks Pregnant
Smiling at the thought of having a cuddly baby in your arms pretty soon? Your baby may be smiling, too! Her facial muscles are fully developed, and she’s practicing some adorable little grins and expressions as she gets ready for her big debut.
OK…her smiles don’t exactly mean anything yet—but within 8 to 12 weeks of popping into the world, you’ll be able to make her grin with delight!
Your Baby at 38 Weeks
Your baby weighs between 6 and 9 pounds and is a bit more than 1½ feet tall. Their brain is now ready for the next big job, life outside the womb. It is perfectly set to help them handle the impending flood of new sensations: bright lights, smiling faces, new smells, sounds, and touch.
Your baby’s liver completes its final development this week too. We’re almost all-systems-go for birth! And, their lungs are gearing up for the big debut. That first breath is a huge life transition. Their lungs are filled with collapsed air sacs, but each tiny sac is coated with a special chemical that will keep them popped open after those first few lung-expanding breaths.
The drama of entering a new world—the cool air on their wet body and the light on their face—triggers their brain to jumpstart their breathing. Even at week 38, they’re set to do it all. Nevertheless, waiting 60 to 90 seconds to clamp the umbilical cord will give them a boost of extra blood, oxygen, iron, and stem cells.
Because of their skinny legs and arms and big heads, babies have much more exposed skin than adults, so they lose heat quickly. To help warm their little body, your baby has stored up some special brown fat that generates extra heat and will be used up over the first day or two. Another great way to keep your little one toasty—and to begin bonding and start the breastfeeding process—is to have skin-to-skin contact right away.
39 Weeks Pregnant: What to Expect
At 39 weeks, your baby is now folded into a plump, petal-soft prize, a bit bigger than a bowling ball.
Congratulations, your baby is officially full term! He’s 7-8 pounds, but his length hasn’t changed much since last week.
Full term means he’s ready for his grand entrance! At this age, your baby’s stomach is the size of a Brazil nut. Just an ounce or so will fill it, but within days it will stretch to the size of a tiny fist (able to hold 2 ounces…or a bit more).
Right after birth, many babies have a 4-8 hour alert period and then they need to sleep, often for the better part of the day. The next 1-2 days, hunger ramps up. And, the baby starts eating more at the bottle and sucking harder at the breast demanding to suckle every couple of hours. (Although, some babies—especially those with a bit of jaundice—need to be awakened and encouraged to eat.)
Fortunately, like little camels, most full-term babies are born with a pound of extra food and water in the body, So, even though your milk may take 3 or 4 days to “come in” most babies have a pretty good reserve. Your healthcare provider or lactation consultant will help you learn how to read the signs to know if your baby is getting enough: your breast suddenly feeling very full (after a couple of days), milk leaking a little from the breast, hearing your baby swallow when suckling, wet inner mouth, frequent wet diapers—with urine that is barely yellow, etc.
40 Weeks Pregnant: Baby at 40 Weeks
It’s week 40 of your pregnancy! Bet you’re pretty ready to…play ball! Your baby is around 6-9 lbs. by now; the average is 7 ½. She’s got hair on her head (or maybe just peach fuzz), eyebrows, eyelashes, a cute little nose, fingernails and toenails. Her hands can grasp, her mouth can suck and swallow, and her lungs, heart and stomach are ready to go. She’s been peeing into your amniotic fluid for months, but she has yet to take her first bowel movement. If she does so before birth, it can be a sign of fetal distress. You’d notice it if your water breaks and is smelly or discolored. It’s theorized that babies can also poo in the womb if they are post-term because their digestive system is mature.
Meconium, this first bowel movement, is made up of amniotic fluid, fetal cells and lanugo, the layer of hair that covered her in the womb. You’ll be cleaning it off your newborn for a few days. As she drinks milk, her poop (you’ll become very, very familiar with her poop!) will gradually lighten and change colors. A healthy breastfed newborn’s poop is yellow, liquidy and seedy-looking. A healthy formula-fed newborn’s poop is light brownish and pasty, like peanut butter.
Size of baby at 40 weeks pregnant: Your baby is about 6-9 lbs and the size of a watermelon.
