This week inside Jen:
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How your baby’s growing: Your baby is still putting on the pounds — about an ounce a day. He now weighs almost 6 pounds and is a little less than 19 inches long. He’s shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered his body as well as the vernix caseosa, the creamy substance that covered and protected his skin during its submersion in amniotic fluid. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, which will stay in his bowels until birth. This blackish mixture, called meconium, will become his first bowel movement.
At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Babies between 37 and 42 weeks are considered full-term; a baby born before 37 weeks is pre-term and after 42 is post-term.) Most likely he’s in a head-down position by now, which is optimal for a smooth delivery, but if he isn’t in the next week, your provider may suggest scheduling an “external cephalic version,” which is a fancy way of saying she’ll try to coax your baby into a head-down position manually, by manipulating him from the outside of your belly.
Your baby is almost ready and most likely, so are you! The only organ still to mature is the lungs. While certainly you are both growing anxious to meet, remember that each day (up to 42 weeks), that your little one stays within your womb will multiply his chances to breathe on his own. If he hasn’t already, this week your baby may drop into the birth canal. While breathing for mom becomes easier, walking may be the exact opposite! If he’s not your first baby, this “lightening” may not occur until right before labor. Fat is dimpling your baby’s elbows and knees, and forming creases in the neck and wrists.
His skin is growing smooth and, shall we say it, “baby” soft. His gums are very rigid. It won’t be many months before you’ll see his teeth. He has a fully developed pair of kidneys and his liver has begun processing some waste products.
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This is a warning, I’m gonna whine and bitch and moan.
Ugh, so I’m at that point where I am ready to have this freaking baby. I mean, I feel physically like I can’t take much more of this. I totally get that Landon needs more time, and I really don’t expect him until the week of the 13th of August, which is still an entire month away.
Sunday my feet were swollen to the point where I couldn’t fit into my shoes, and my feet hurt all the freaking time. My hands are so swollen that I can’t take off my wedding ring most of the time. My low back has started to ache, and my shoulders feel extra tense. It hurts to walk, both due to my hips not feeling properly attached and my feet just hurting.
And the HEAT! Heat never really bothered me all that much before I got pregnant. This last week has been killer, it feels so hot outside. I just want to stay inside where it is cool.
Going to bed isn’t fun, getting comfortable takes forever. As soon as I do get comfortable, my bladder kicks in, and I can’t ignore it for very long. I wake up at least 3, often as many as 8 times a night to potty, and standing up after lying down for more than 30 minutes is hell. My brain literally goes, “You have to pee. Standing will hurt… let’s hold it a while longer….. crap. Now my bladder hurts with the pressure. I just have to get up.” So I do, and it hurts.
I’ve been getting round ligament pain again, when I do walk, so that also sucks.
I really need to get down to the pool and swim for a while, because I am not getting any exercise any other way at this point. It all just hurts too much.
I’m hoping that starting next week, since I won’t have to work, I can get down to the pool at the apartment complex a little more often, because that would be a goodness.

My mother called me last night. She said she is sending a “baby card” with a check for Lan in it…. So I can go and get him a stroller or something….