Wow 39 Weeks...

	Week Thirty Nine: Very close now
	You are 39 weeks pregnant. (fetal age 37 weeks) The average baby is about 20 inches (51 cm) and weighs about 7.5 pounds (3400 grams). The baby has reached its final birth position. It will be cramped inside your uterus for much movement. Your baby will continue to punch and kick but lower in your abdomen, under your pelvis. The head is about 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter. Most of the baby's downy coating of lanugo has now disappeared. You are very close now to the end of your pregnancy, just a week or so left. Keeping track of your little one's activity level may be a good idea at this time. As space in your uterus becomes more cramped, your baby's kicks and other movements may seem less forceful. You may want to check on your baby's movements from time to time and do a kick count. If movement drops off considerably, call your doctor or caregiver. The average baby weighs in at over seven pounds (3kg), but can be as much as one or two pounds (1kg) heavier or lighter. It can vary with each baby, and there is no cause for concern. Your pregnancy is considered full term now (between 37 and 42 weeks is full-term). At birth the umbilical cord will stop working when the child takes his first breaths of air outside of uterus. The child's breathing will trigger changes in the heart that will force all blood to go through the lungs. Most Caucasian babies are born with blue eyes and their true eye color may not reveal itself for weeks or months. Most African and Asian babies usually have dark grey or brown eyes at birth, their dark eyes becoming a true brown or black after the first six months or year. Multiracial children often turn out to have the most beautiful colored eyes. Baby is restricted in movement as there is no space left in the womb. You should be finding it easier to breathe now that the uterus is dropping away from the diaphragm. You may be experiencing the nesting syndrome by attempting to clean, cook, shop and prepare for the new arrival. This is very common, just be careful that you do not wear yourself out. You need to conserve your energy for the hard work ahead in labor and birth. Your body still makes amniotic fluid, but absorption may outpace the amount you make and so levels may decrease a bit. Contact your caregiver immediately if you have any leaking of fluid. The lanugo has mostly disappeared, but you will probably find a bit on their shoulders, arms and legs and in those little bodily creases. It will vanish completely on its own in time.

How your baby's growing:

Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

How your life's changing:

At each of your now-weekly visits, your caregiver will do an abdominal exam to check your baby's growth and position. She might also do an internal exam to see whether your cervix has started ripening: softening, effacing (thinning out), and dilating (opening). But even armed with this information, there's still no way for your caregiver to predict exactly when your baby is coming. If you go past your due date, your caregiver will schedule you for fetal testing (usually a sonogram) after 40 weeks to ensure that it's safe to continue the pregnancy. If you don't go into labor on your own, most practitioners will induce labor when you're between one and two weeks overdue — or sooner if there's an indication that the risk of waiting is greater than the risks of delivering your baby without further delay.

While you're waiting, it's important to continue to pay attention to your baby's movements and let your caregiver know right away if they seem to decrease. Your baby should remain active right up to delivery, and a noticeable slowdown in activity could be a sign of a problem. Also call if you think your water may have broken. Membranes rupture before the beginning of labor in about 8 percent of term pregnancies. Sometimes there's a big gush of fluid, but sometimes there's only a small gush or a slow leak. (Don't try to make the diagnosis yourself. Call even if you only suspect you have a leak.) If you rupture your membranes and don't start contractions on your own, you'll be induced.