Your Pregnancy: A Week-by-Week Guide

You are 36 Weeks Pregnant!

WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH YOU

Welcome to the last month of your pregnancy. You may find it very hard to get in a comfortable position! Sleeping on your side with one or two pillows between your legs and one at your back may be comforting. If you have difficulty sleeping, try drinking warm milk, chicken broth or "sleepy time tea." And then, just as you get to sleep, you might need to get up again ... to use the bathroom.
You may have your first internal exam to see if your cervix has softened, thinned (effaced), dilated, or if your baby's head is dipping into your pelvis. Keep in mind that many women go to full term despite total effacement, a centimeter or two of dilatation and a fully engaged fetal head. Likewise, a woman whose cervix is "long, thick and closed" may give birth the next day.

I "may" find it hard to find a comfortable sleeping position? Really? You think? Duh!!!! I think my lack of sleep is showing right now, lol. I am so tired all the time it seems. If (and that's a BIG if) I do happen to find a some what comfortable position, it doesn't last long because inevitably, I will have to get up and pee for maybe the second or third time that night. Not to mention that my lower back and hips are KILLING me so sleeping on my sides is a constant challenge (after the 4th month, pregnant women are told to not sleep on their backs, only their side).
As far as internals go (ohhh sounds like so much fun, huh? NOT!) I think I have my first next week (37 wks) to see if she is still breech. So that appointment should be interesting. I can't believe that if she is still breech, it would mean that she could be here in less then 3 weeks! Yikes!!!!! We're not ready yet!!!!!

WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH YOUR BABY

Your baby weighs about 5 to 5 1/2 pounds and is approximately 16 1/2 to 17 inches in length. Even though your baby is gaining rapidly, you may find that your weight is beginning to stabilize. Some mothers even lose one to two pounds during the final month while others continue to gain about one pound per week.

Well, I'm one of the unlucky ones that has continued to gain about a pound a week (go figure!). My total weight gain so far has been I think 22-23 lbs. I was really hoping to not go over the 20 mark. Oh well, I am taking some comfort in the fact that I think darn near half that 22 lbs is fluid retention and not actual fat. I feel like that girl in Charlie and The Chocolate Factory that blew up like a blueberry, lol! I only have two pairs of flip flops that fit my feet anymore and I can't were any rings on my fingers because they've swollen up so much. Don't even get me started on how puffy my face is!

EATING FOR TWO

Eating nutritiously isn't just for proper fetal growth or maternal weight management. In fact, studies indicate that good nutrition may help to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), the mysterious and abrupt death in infants that peaks in incidence between two and four months and affects around 5,000 babies each year. Here are some pregnancy risk factors that increase the incidence of SIDS:

• Mothers who eat poorly during pregnancy
• Mothers who smoke during pregnancy
• Mothers who have used heroin or cocaine during pregnancy
• Mothers who don't get regular prenatal checkups

Okay, I know that eating healthy is very important during pregnancy, but to suggest that SIDS could be caused by a mothers poor diet I think is ridiculous. I swear they'll scare mothers with anything just to get them to do what they think they should do, even scare them with SIDS. I also don't think it has anything to do with whether a woman gets regular prenatal checkups either. Obviously it's extremely important to have these checkups for a million different reasons, but SIDS I don't think is one of them. Enough with the scare tatics....

FACT OF THE WEEK

What exactly is a non-stress test? Performed at a birth center or hospital, this procedure evaluates your baby's well being through an external fetal monitor.
The test lasts from 20 minutes to an hour and records fetal heart rate and movements. Two small monitors are placed on your abdomen, and information is relayed to an external monitoring machine. Your practitioner may suggest a non-stress test if you have experienced any of the following:

· Gestational diabetes

· High blood pressure

· Diminishing fetal movement or a sudden increase in fetal movement followed by little movement

· A post due-date pregnancy