How your baby's growing: Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.
How your life's changing: Your uterus — which was entirely tucked away inside your pelvis when you conceived — now reaches up under your rib cage. If you could peek inside your womb, you'd see that there's more baby than amniotic fluid in there now. Your ballooning uterus is crowding your other internal organs, too, which is why you probably have to urinate more often and may be dealing with heartburn and other gastrointestinal distress. If you're not grappling with these annoyances, you're one of the lucky few.
From here on out, you'll start seeing your practitioner every week. Sometime between now and 37 weeks, she'll do a vaginal and rectal culture to check for bacteria called Group B streptococci (GBS). (Don't worry — the swab is the size of a regular cotton swab, and it won't hurt at all.) GBS is usually harmless in adults, but if you have it and pass it on to your baby during birth, it can cause serious complications, such as pneumonia, meningitis, or a blood infection. Because 10 to 30 percent of pregnant women have the bacteria and don't know it, it's vital to be screened. (The bacteria come and go on their own — that's why you weren't screened earlier in pregnancy.) If you're a GBS carrier, you'll get IV antibiotics during labor, which will greatly reduce your baby's risk of infection.
This is also a good time to create a birth plan. Using our form will help you focus on specifics — like who'll be present, what pain management techniques you want to try, and where you want your baby to stay after you deliver. It will give you a starting point to discuss your preferences with your medical team. Childbirth is unpredictable, and chances are you won't follow your plan to the letter, but thinking about your choices ahead of time — and sharing your preferences with your caregiver — should take some of the anxiety out of the process..
How I'm doing: I'm doing very well. It's very exciting to know that we're having a girl. We are very much ready to meet her now. We're feeling more pressure to have a name decided on now. We have a first name settled on so now we're just deciding what the middle name will be. We have 3 choices but we could still go with something completely different. We may wait until we see her to decide. And we're still not telling a soul. Surprisingly, I've been able to keep this a secret.
Our glider arrived at the baby store yesterday, so we'll be picking that up over the weekend and getting it set up. Scott really likes it and thinks it's really comfortable and I think he's going to try and take it over before the baby comes. If Tony were still with us I know he'd think it were his too.
I have one more biweekly appointment on April 1st and then I'll start seeing the midwives every week. They didn't mention the Group B strep test so that may or may not be happening at my next appointment. It's very important to me that I don't screen positive. If I do, I'll have to be hooked up to a continuous IV throughout labor which will mean a much less active labor and that in turn might make a medication-free birth more difficult. Many people say the worst position in labor is the one you've been in for the past 15 minutes so movement can be an important pain relief technique.
We have two remaining birth classes. I feel like we've learned a lot through this process and are well prepared for childbirth. I am not afraid at all even after watching many births on video and hearing many stories of difficult births. Learning more about birth, even talking about dealing with pain, makes me more excited to go through the process rather than scared. I think this will help me to relax; which I hope is the key to a less painful birthing process. But I'm not crazy and I still hope that I'm one of the luckier mothers who has less painful but still productive contractions, the baby moves into just the right position, and that her head isn't too big (although I hope all the DHA supplements I've been taking daily have helped her brain to develop well).
My last day of work is April 15th. Not too much longer to go.
That's so great that you're not afraid. I think that will help a lot. It helped me to think about how even though it hurt, the pain is productive. It's supposed to be painful and it's the pain that will bring your baby out faster. I hope you're able to have the med free birth you want.
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