34 Weeks Pregnant

Your baby now weighs more than 2.2kg and is 45cm from top to toe. She's filling out and getting rounder – she’ll need her fat layers later to regulate her body temperature once she's born.

If you don't already talk to your baby, this is a good time to start – at 35 weeks her hearing is fully developed. Don't feel ridiculous if you're already chatting in baby talk. Some evidence shows that newborns pay closer attention to high-pitched tones.

If you've been nervous about going into premature labour, you'll be happy to know that 99 per cent of babies born at week 35 can survive outside the uterus (womb) – and most have no major problems. Although your baby's central nervous system is still maturing, her lungs are nearly fully developed by now.

- BabyCentre.co.uk

It is reassuring to know that if your baby were to be born now she would have a 95 per cent chance of surviving without medical help. Your baby is busy weeing (sometimes up to a pint) into the amniotic fluid as her digestive and intestinal systems are fully-functioning, her first meconium stool (your baby’s first poo) is waiting in her intestines ready to be passed once she is born. At 34 weeks the placenta reaches maturity and starts to age, but it will still support your baby until she is born. The placenta only starts to decrease its ability to work if you go way past your due date, which is why women are generally induced if they go over by ten days to two weeks depending on their circumstances.

- Gurgle.com

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 at 34 weeks pregnant. (Now go bake some oatmeal raisin cookies with all that flour!)

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. 

- WhatToExpect.com

33 Weeks Pregnant

Your baby now weighs about 2kg and measures up to 44cm from head to toe. She may already be getting ready for birth by turning upside-down. Her head should be pointing down, ready for her journey into the world.

Your doctor or midwife will be paying careful attention to your baby's position in the coming weeks. Some babies do decide to turn back round again.

Your baby's skull is still quite pliable. The plates of bone that make up her skull have not completely fused. This is so she can ease out of the relatively narrow birth canal, the passage between your cervix and the opening of your vagina. But the bones in the rest of her body are hardening. Your baby's skin is also gradually becoming less red and wrinkled as fat builds up underneath.

If you're a first-time mum, your baby's head may move into your pelvis this week and press firmly against your cervix. This happens for about half of all first-time mums. If you're a second-time mum, you can expect this to happen a week before labour. For some, this won't happen until the start of labour.

- BabyCentre.co.uk

It probably feels like there is no room left inside of you at the moment and you would no doubt be glad if your baby came tonight. Even though your baby has a great chance of surviving now, he may still have trouble breathing so it’s best that babies are born after ‘term’, which is 37 weeks. Not long to go… Your baby is about 12 inches long and he sleeps for most of the day and night, as it is too cramped in the womb for any somersaults now. His skin has changed from reddish to bright pink as he continues to put on weight and lay fat down.

Now is the time to start thinking about your newborn! What will he look like? And what you might need to buy for your newborn! It's probably also a good idea to prepare yourself for the sleepless nights and nappy changes to come:

Newborn babies need nearly twice the amount that an adult requires and even when they are 18 months old, they will still need, on average, five hours more sleep than their parents do. They spend a lot more time in the dream sleep stage, which you can distinguish from the other stages by the occasional twitch and her eyes moving underneath her lids. On the other hand, when she is in the ‘deep sleep’ phase of her sleeping cycle, she will be hard to awaken and will make little sucking movements with her mouth. She may also ‘startle’ in the same manner that adults do as they are falling asleep.

Before the age of three months, your baby will not be able to differentiate between night and day and so her sleep will be scattered across the twenty-four hour period. After the three month stage, your baby will start to learn that night equals a longer period of sleep than the daytime naps that she receives. As she grows older, you will find her naps become less frequent, but are more predictable and longer than the frequent but short ones of her early months. By six months you can reasonably expect more of a routine. 


- Gurgle.com

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 at 33 weeks pregnant, 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.

- WhatToExpect.com

32 Weeks Pregnant

Inside pregnancy video: a 3D animated look at a baby in this week of pregnancy. Take a look!

Your baby now weighs about 1.7kg and is around 42cm long from head to toe. Although his lungs won't be fully developed until just before birth, your little one is busy inhaling amniotic fluid to exercise his lungs. From 32 weeks, babies born early have good chance of surviving and thriving. His skin is becoming soft and smooth as he plumps up in preparation for birth.

Some babies have a head of hair already, others have only a few wisps. Thick hair at birth doesn't necessarily mean thick hair later on. But children with fine hair in childhood also tend to have fine hair when they've grown up.

If your baby is a boy, his testicles should have descended from his abdomen into his scrotum. Sometimes, however, one or both testicles won't move into position until after birth. In two thirds of all baby boys who have undescended testicles at birth, the condition corrects itself by their first birthday.

You're probably gaining 450g a week, largely because your baby is likely to gain more than half his birthweight during the seven weeks before birth. Make sure you are eating well in these last few weeks.

Your bump will be getting quite big now, and you may find it attracts a lot of attention!


- BabyCentre.co.uk

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!). At 32 weeks pregnant, 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).

- WhatToExpect.com

Day-to-day tasks are probably becoming difficult, so bending to put your socks on or getting in and out of a car become comical. Pedicured toenails are somewhere in the distant non-pregnant past. By this stage in pregnancy your baby’s five senses, touch, smell, taste, hearing and seeing are all fully functioning and taking in the strange world of the womb. Noises from your stomach gurgle close by, colours change rapidly as the light outside changes the light in the womb and the comforting sound of your voice floats in to your baby. You may notice your lower abdomen tightening from now onwards as your body practises Braxton Hick’s contractions in preparation for actual contractions.


- Gurgle.com
 

31 Weeks Pregnant

Your baby weighs about 1.5kg and looks more than ever like a newborn. He measures about 41cm from crown to toe. His arms, legs and body continue to fill out – and they are finally proportional in size to his head.

You may notice your baby isn't moving around as much. That's because he's just running out of space in your uterus (womb). As long as you can feel him squirming and kicking, you'll know he's just fine. Believe it or not, he still has plenty of growing to do. You can expect him to gain at least 900g before birth.

Your baby's organs are continuing to mature and he is passing water from his bladder, which is good practice for the weeing he'll do after he's born. Also, the marrow in his bones has taken over from his liver the job of producing red blood cells.

- BabyCentre.co.uk

As far as growth goes, your baby's still on a roll, measuring an impressive 18 inches and weighing in at more than three pounds. At 31 weeks pregnant, you can still expect your baby to gain at least three to five pounds, possibly more, before you two meet.
 
Your baby's brain is working overtime these days, developing faster than ever. Connections between individual nerve cells are growing at a frenetic clip, and your baby can now perceive information from all five senses. Sure, your baby can't smell anything right now, but that's only because he or she is still submerged in amniotic fluid and needs to be breathing air to get a whiff of anything. Lucky for you — and your baby — yours will be one of the very first scents your baby breathes in, a scent that will quickly become his or her very favorite.
So what's your little dove doing all day while you're busy feathering your nest for his or her arrival? Making faces, hiccupping, swallowing, breathing, pedaling with little hands and feet along your uterine wall, and even sucking his or her thumb. In fact, some babies suck their thumbs so vigorously while in the womb that they're born with a callus on their thumb (what a little sucker!).

- WhatToExpect.com

Your baby is putting down more fat stores underneath his skin and gains as much as 17 ounces per week. The hair that covers your baby’s skin, called lanugo is shedding slowly this week and will probably be gone by the time your baby is born. Some premature babies are still covered in hair, but this will soon shed. You probably won’t feel your baby moving quite so much now because it is getting more and more cramped inside your uterus. This is one of the reasons why twins usually come early.

Your baby may turn into a headown position soon in preparation for the birth. Most babies turn at around 28 to 32 weeks but some don't turn until the day they are born! It is much harder for breech babies (head up) to be born vaginally or without medical intervention which is why it is better for your baby to be facing head down. See our article and video about how to encourage your baby into a good position for birth. Your baby measures about 18 inches this week and probably weighs somewhere near 3.5 pounds. Having said that all babies are different sizes so it is very hard to predict what size your baby will be. If you measure small for dates, you will have got used (and annoyed) to people mentioning how small you seem and vice versa for women with large bumps. The best remedy is to ignore everybody! What matters is that you and your baby are healthy and that you will meet each other very soon.

 - Gurgle.com

30 Weeks Pregnant

Your baby now measures a little more than 39cm from crown to toe. Her growth in terms of her length will soon slow down but she will continue to gain weight until she's born. She probably weighs about 1.3kg at this stage.

Your baby's lungs and digestive tract are almost fully developed. She continues to open and shut her eyes. She can probably see what's going on inside your uterus (womb), tell light from dark and even track a light source. If you shine a light on your stomach, your baby may move her head to follow the light or even reach out to touch the moving glow.

Some researchers think baring your stomach to light stimulates visual development. But your baby won't be able to see much when she's born. Newborns can see a distance of only between 20cm and 30cm. Children with normal vision don't reach 20/20 vision (the same as an adult) until the age of about eight. To complete the picture, your baby now has eyebrows and can bat her eyelashes!

About a litre of amniotic fluid now surrounds your baby, but that volume decreases as she gets bigger and has less room in your uterus. As you and your baby continue to grow, don't be alarmed if you feel breathless, as if you can't get enough air. It's just your uterus pressing against your diaphragm.

- BabyCentre.co.uk

 

Your baby's height and weight haven't changed much in the past week, but the big news is your baby's brain gain. Until now, the surface of your baby's brain was smooth. Now, your fetus's brain is taking on those characteristic grooves and indentations. The reason for this change in appearance? Those wrinkles allow for an increased amount of brain tissue  — a necessary change as your developing baby prepares for life outside your womb, and the street smarts he or she will need.
 
Another big change at 30 weeks pregnant: Your baby's bone marrow has taken over production of red blood cells (before, tissue groups and then the spleen took care of producing the blood cells). This is an important step for your baby, because it means he or she is better able to thrive on his or her own once born (with a little TLC from you, of course).
So it's in with the new (brain cells, red blood cells) and out with the old (lanugo). Much of the lanugo — the soft, downy hair covering your baby's body — is beginning to disappear now because both fat and the brain are regulating your baby's body temperature (so no need for that furry coat anymore).  But you may see a few leftover strands of fur on your newborn's back and shoulders.  

- WhatToExpect.com