39 Weeks Pregnant: Braxton Hicks Contractions

You are 39 weeks's pregnant! Your stretch marks are maxed out (much like your credit card after furnishing that nursery – you should practically own shares of Pottery Barn Kids) and your skin is dry and itchy. Your hips and back ache. You are probably getting regular Braxton Hicks contractions, and if this is your first pregnancy, you may get excited at their onset – “this is it!” – and crushed with disappointment every time they taper off and disappear AGAIN. Don’t you worry. The real contractions will come soon enough. As you’re now only days from the big event, you might be reviewing or even reconsidering your birth plan and/or pain relief decisions. Whatever you decide, be sure to make your decision clear to your health care provider and write it into your birth plan if you have one.

Try not to overdo the nesting thing at this point. You’re a week or two away from complete and utter sleep deprivation and hour upon hour of feedings, day and night. Do your obsessive-compulsive nesting thing in short bursts and stop for a nap or an episode of Oprah when you can. Put your feet up to ease any pain or swelling in your legs and feet. Now, just to be completely contradictory, try to keep your mind busy. Do crosswords, finish that novel you picked up last year and never finished, call old friends – especially do anything that involves sitting or reclining. Waiting for baby can be worrisome, depressing and just plain boring. If you’re still working you may find the days drag by or zoom past. Speed up or slow down accordingly. You know. Try to find that “happy medium” everyone is always talking about.

Chances are your baby is around 7 pounds and 20 inches long at this point. Boys are usually a bit heavier than girls, but the average baby born around 40 weeks is about 7 ½ pounds and 20 inches long. Baby has lost the fine hair and waxy coating that used to cover her, with a few little waxy spots here and there still sticking around so you can practise your washing skills after she’s born. She’s sloughing off the top layers of skin and a new, baby-soft layer is growing underneath. She’s now so big that movement is really quite limited and, when it does occur, it’s a battle against your vital organs. We don’t have to tell you who’s winning.