35 Weeks!

Your baby weighs about 5 ½ pounds now and measures about 18.9 inches long. As you know each baby has a different weight and length at birth, so these measurements are just an average. Now your baby will start it’s most rapid weight gain, adding ½ to ¾ of a pound every week until they are born.

You may be able to distinguish body parts such as a head, hand or foot now that your baby is getting larger and your uterus is getting thinner. Baby’s hearing has completely developed now and the lungs are very close to being complete and ready for birth.

The kidneys are fully developed and the liver is able to process waste products. Fat is continues to accumulate at a rapid pace now, which will help your baby stay warm after they are born.

When you visit your health practitioner now they may begin to exam your cervix to see how ready it is for delivery. If you are not having a home birth, have your overnight bag packed and ready so that when your labor starts you have everything you want and need ready to go to the hospital or birthing center.

WOW! I am only two weeks from full term!! My word.

Gotta get the birth attendant stuff figured out. I think my main question mark is just about the pediatrician. I would like to meet the person I'll be dealing with, work out any points we disagree on, and understand what exactly the pediatrician's role is at this birth! I am also curious to know whether someone will be doing home visits after the birth or if I'm going to have to haul baby and me down to an office somewhere. I'm not overly worried about this one; even our vet did home visits so I'm sure that baby doctors would be willing. But still, I just want to know.

HA! Sure I should be able to distinguish baby parts! I am completely useless at that. Not that it stops me from trying. But I can't make heads nor tails of it [pun very intended].

There will be no pre-labour cervical checks going on here. I'm not sure why they get done anyway; a woman could walk around 3cm dilated for weeks, or efface and dilate like crazy in a the blink of an eye. If I get my way, there will be no checks. I might consent to one but honestly I'd just rather not. They are uncomfortable, and I don't care to take the risk of infection when I don't see an overwhelming benefit. I'm ok with being in the dark about my progress, dilation-wise. I think there are plenty of other signs to indicate how labour is coming along.

I've been thinking about getting a few things together for the birth. I have a plastic sheet which could work on the bed, though it's only a double and it's fitted so that might be annoying. I should pull it out and figure out whether it will work or not, and buy a cheap shower curtain if it doesn't seem good. I think we will then cover that with a set of Eva's sheets which have gotten holes in them. That way if they don't wash clean I can just throw them out without worrying about it. I guess I'll have to buy some pads too. And I plan to bind my belly after birth- I should buy whatever it is I'm going to use to do that. Maybe Lucia can offer a suggestion. I did a little research on the belly binding thing and there don't seem to be any drawbacks (except perhaps feeling hot!). I asked Tara's midwife about it and she was all for it. I remember how I kind of craved some kind of abdominal support after my babies were born; felt like everything was floating all free in there. And of course there's the added aesthetic benefit.

Anyway I'm still feeling great. Hot, but great. I was reading The Pregnancy Book by Sears and Sears, and it said that this month I may be feeling sore and tired of dragging my big body around. But I really don't. I'm slow, sure, but I'm comfortable. Sleeping isn't a problem, and I don't have any discomfort anywhere. I'm thinking part of it is luck of the draw, and the other part is the good eating and exercise. Whatever the reason, I'm grateful. I know that pregnancy can be very difficult and uncomfortable for some women.