Clearly I spoke too soon since my last post, in which I mentioned that the swelling had gone down, as evidenced by the +5 lbs (4.8 if you want to get technical) scale surprise this morning. It really should be of no shock since my toes looked like mini-sausages last night when I rested them on the ottoman. So I'm guessing +3 lbs of weight gain since I've been grazing 24/7 and +2 for the swelling.
I'm hoping going to start working from home as of Monday. Over the past two weeks I have wrapped up all my major deadlines and have trained my boss on any items that only I have known how to handle thus far. Both of my assistants work from home so so help me God I will go ballistic if he gives me crap about it. I'm not going to ask, I'm just gonna tell them. With less than 5-weeks to go, I have major nesting to get out of my system.
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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) not counting their amniotic fluid, the umbilical cord, or the placenta itself. 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.
Your doctor or midwife should soon start monitoring cervical effacement (thinning of the cervix) and dilation in order to predict labor. If your cervix is already dilated labor is probably not far away—although there are some moms who walk around with a dilated cervix for a couple of days prior to labor. And if you haven’t heard about the joys of discharging the mucus plug (which protects the uterus from infection) along with some spotting, commonly called “bloody show”—both are signs that labor is around the corner. Should you discharge anything unusual in consistency and/or coloration, don’t hesitate to call you health care providor, it’s probably nothing, but you certainly don’t need the extra stress right now.
Let’s talk about pain. Reports on the intensity of pain experienced during labor and childbirth are widely varied from woman to woman. The pain experienced depends on several things including your own natural pain threshold, medication, birthing position, fetal position, previous births, your general health and the actual birthing environment. Of course, there are natural births, cesarean deliveries, spinals, IV’s and other pain medications, all of which also play into how you experience pain during child birth.
Ideally, you should attempt to be as relaxed as possible and willing to accept the pain as part of the birthing process. In reality, your experience of the birthing process is unique to your body and how you choose to respond to it. Pain is a two part process: the first part is the physical experience of the pain and the second is your emotional reaction to your experience—and that is the part you have the most control over. Choosing to accept and endure the pain of child-birth (with or without medication) can be an empowering experience for any woman, as well as making the birthing process notably easier for those assisting you.
Prep early for those first weeks "To streamline a chore like filling out birth announcements, address and stamp your envelopes now while you're still in control of your time." — Laura
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