Antoinette is officially 37 weeks pregnant as of today. She is 21 days to her due date. From here on out, many of the facts and figures that I give you will be estimates and guesses, as the amount of weight gain the baby will experience is completely varied from baby to baby. For Billy, he should be approximately 6.8 lbs. now. He should be about 21 inches in length and Antoinette's belly should have stopped growing now. That belly you see in the last pic is about as big as she's going to get. As her belly is at maximum expansion, these final 1-3 weeks of pregnancy are bound to be her most uncomfortable, especially with the rib issue.
Antoinette has experienced two forms of contractions at this point. The first are Braxton-Hicks, which we've talked a bit about. More or less, they are a tightening in the uterine muscles and the doctor refers to them as Antoinette's body practicing for delivery. The second form of contraction are known as false labor contractions, which are very similar to true contractions, but different in the sense that they do not grow closer together over time and they can often go away if she were to stand up and walk around. These contractions are designed as your body's means of beginning the cervical dilation process and beginning to encourage the body to break its own water. For Antoinette, dilation had yet to begin as of the last doctor's visit.
At this point, the baby is ready to roll. He should be a perfectly healthy baby boy from a maturity stand point if born today. When he's born is anybody's guess, so feel free to email your guess based on her pictures. Remember, only 5% of women deliver on their actual due date and most first time pregnancies deliver later rather than sooner.
Over the past few weeks, Billy has been building up waste in his intestinal tract. This waste is greenish black in color and called meconium. Meconium is not traditional human waste, as you might think, but instead is made up of shed human cells, lanugo hairs, and other substances he has ingested while in the womb. It is the first of a lifetime of waste that will pass through the baby's bowels after he is born and can be an important sign of a healthy baby. That being said, if he were to pass this "baby waste" in the womb, upon delivery, a special process would be carried out to ensure that the baby did not become sick or ingest any of this material.
Being a baby boy, all of his parts should have descended into their proper position. The doctor will check this at birth to ensure this is the case, because in cases where this did not occur, a higher probability of infertility can result. This lack of proper "dropping" happens in 1% of baby boys and is therefore considered quite common. His skull is made up of five separate bony plates known as fontanelles, which means "little fountains". They are important as a safety precaution during birth. The babies head can actually disfigure itself into a semi-conical shape to ensure safe passage through the Mother's birth canal. No damage to the fetal brain is caused in cases where this occurs. His head would return to normal shape soon after delivery. The baby is also born without tear ducts and will actually develop a few weeks after birth for most infants.
No comments:
Post a Comment