Weight of Baby by the End of 36 Weeks Pregnancy

Welcome to week 36 of pregnancy — officially the outset of month nine.

Your shortly-to-be infant is eavesdropping more than these days, thanks to a newly abrupt sense of hearing, and he may also exist possibly dropping lower into your pelvis.

This final month may bring extra joint flexibility (and less ideally, pelvic pain) as loosening and softening hormones kick in ahead of labor.

Your Babe at Week 36

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Talk about a growth spurt! Your baby has gone from the size of a sesame seed to a vi-pound, xx-incher in well-nigh half dozen months time! That incredible rate of growth slows now for two of import reasons. First, your little i is storing up the energy reserves he'll need to go through labor and enter the world. Plus, if his torso got much bigger, he'd accept a really tough time fitting through the narrow alley of your birth culvert...a tight squeeze no matter what.

Speaking of that journey, it'south a good matter for both of you that his basic are still flexible, enabling a gentler ride to the big meet and greet. Leading the way is his nifty noggin, featuring ingenious floating skull plates that overlap to allow the head to compress on the way out. When your little ane emerges, you'll notice a soft rectangular area on the top of his cute little caput. This soft spot — or anterior fontanel — is where your baby's skulls bones haven't even so fused. They'll close past the time he turns 18 months.

Final touches are making your baby ready for prime time. Blood circulation has been fine-tuned and the immune system is set to do battle with germs outside the womb. After birth your trivial fighter will continue to reap the benefits of your antibodies thank to your colostrum and breast milk. And speaking of that breast milk, baby's digestive organization is ready to accept liquid food — theoretically — since your footling one withal gets all his nutrition (and oxygen) from the placenta.

At a Glance

So cute!

Your baby looks more than like an infant this week, with chubby little legs and pink-tinted skin — even in babies of color because of the blood vessels simply beneath the surface.

Bionic hearing

Your infant's ears are actress abrupt during these last few weeks. Studies testify she may even recognize your vox and favorite songs later on nascence.

Babe may drop

If this is your outset birth, your babe may drib lower into your pelvis this week in what is called "lightening" or "dropping."

36 weeks pregnant is how many months?

If yous're 36 weeks meaning, you're in calendar month 9 of your pregnancy. Only a few weeks left to become! Nonetheless accept questions? Here's some more information on how weeks, months and trimesters are broken down in pregnancy.

How big is my baby at 36 weeks?

Forget your aching back — and everything else! — by trying to focus on your baby, who is now about 6 pounds and 18 to xix inches long.

Growth will slow downward in the coming weeks, both and so your baby will be able to fit through the narrow passageway to the outside and then she tin store upwardly all the energy needed for commitment.

Fetal skull and basic

When you lot're 36 weeks pregnant, your baby'southward skull basic are not fused together yet so the head tin can easily (well, relatively easily) maneuver through the birth canal.

Your baby'due south skull isn't the simply soft structure in her niggling body. Virtually of her bones and cartilage are quite soft besides, allowing for an easier journey into the earth during delivery. Merely don't worry — they'll harden over the first few years of her life.

Infant'due south digestion still needs to grab up

By now, many of your babe'southward systems are pretty mature, at least in baby terms, and simply about set up for life on the outside. Blood apportionment, for instance, has been perfected and your baby'south immune arrangement has adult enough to protect your piddling one from infections exterior the womb.

Others, however, still need a few finishing touches. In one case such notable instance: digestion — which actually won't be fully mature until erstwhile after birth.

Why? Inside her little gestational cocoon, your baby has relied on the umbilical cord for nutrition, meaning that the digestive system, though adult, hasn't been operational. Information technology volition take the first year or two to bring it up to speed.

Your Trunk at Week 36

baby size at 36 weeks pregnant

Pregnancy walk or waddle

Welcome to your concluding month of pregnancy! It's a good thing your baby's well-nigh washed cooking since your body may experience pretty "washed" by now as well.

For ane affair, by 36 weeks pregnant, yous're doing the penguin waddle many third trimester moms-to-be adopt. That new walk is not in your imagination; it'southward in your connective tissue, which those hormones are loosening and softening.

And that'due south particularly of import at present that you're nearing your due appointment. Your infant — who's grown quite large by this bespeak — needs to fit through your pelvic bones, and so it's good that they're more than flexible at this stage. Information technology'south your body's way of getting ready to squeeze a large babe out of a small space.

Pelvic pain

The downside to all this joint flexibility, likewise the resemblance you now bear to your feathered friends, is pelvic pain. Add the force per unit area from your baby's caput burrowing deeper and deeper into your pelvis and your heavier uterus weighing you down, and information technology'southward no wonder it's a pain to walk around these days.

To relieve the discomfort, relax with your hips elevated, do some pelvic exercises, take warm baths, utilise warm compresses, get a prenatal massage from a certified therapist or try some complementary and alternative therapies. A belly sling may exist helpful likewise.

Baby drops ("lightening")

In that location is a happy outcome, believe it or non. As your infant drops into your pelvic crenel — and keep in mind that not all babies drop before labor begins — the upward pressure level of the uterus on your diaphragm is relieved.

Once this "lightening," as it's known in the pregnancy business, strikes, you'll be able to take bigger and deeper breaths. Your stomach also won't exist so squished anymore, making eating a full meal more comfy.

Pregnancy Symptoms Calendar week 36

Changes in fetal movement

Heartburn or indigestion

Bloating and gas

Constipation

More frequent urination

Vaginal discharge streaked with blood

Itchy belly

Edema (swelling in feet and ankles)

Indisposition

Nesting instinct

Tips for Y'all This Week

Note motion changes

Don't be alarmed if your infant's movements accept changed from sharp kicks or jabs to squirms. Your cutie has less room for calisthenics now.

You should withal continue track of your babe's movements every twenty-four hours, though, and then if you're worried, endeavor sipping a sugary beverage or eating a snack and then encounter if your baby perks upwards. Be sure to telephone call your doctor if in that location'south a change in fetal movement frequency or an unusual change in the blueprint of baby'south movements.

Acquire about your mucus plug

Be prepared to lose your fungus plug, which will wait like thick, yellow discharge tinged with blood. It can happen weeks, days or hours before labor begins.

At that place's no need for concern if your mucus plug dislodges well earlier your due date — information technology could still exist a few weeks earlier labor really starts.

And your baby is still rubber even afterwards yous're unplugged. In fact, your body continues to make cervical mucus to preclude infection, which means infant's still snugly sealed off. And then you can take sex, take a bath and otherwise go about your concern equally usual.

Prep your announcement

If you're planning on sending out birth announcements, information technology'due south a good idea to address all the envelopes or compile the email lists at present. One less affair to do once baby arrives!

Get plenty of B6

Hunt your poly peptide with an adequate supply of pyridoxine. Never heard of it? It'southward the vitamin also known as B6, and its part is to help your body and infant utilize all that poly peptide to do its cell-building task.

Think of information technology this way: If protein is the brick, B6 is the mortar. And B6 plays an specially big office in the development of infant's brain and nervous organisation.

You lot'll detect B6 in prenatal vitamins and foods like bananas, avocados, wheat germ, chocolate-brown rice, bran, soybeans, oatmeal, potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, watermelon and meat. See, there'due south overlap with your poly peptide sources, making your job even easier.

Get your labor questions answered

If you lot experience uncomfortable or concerned well-nigh labor, it's always best to phone call your wellness care provider and inquire any questions you lot may have. Fifty-fifty if you make an unnecessary trip to the infirmary or doctor's role, you'd be far, far from the simply person who's washed so.

Pre-labor can terminal for a few hours to a few days, weeks or fifty-fifty a month in some cases, and signs and symptoms can be different for every person (and every person's pregnancy).

Learn nearly the stages of labor

At that place are iii phases of labor: early on, active and transitional. The first of these stages is usually the longest. Thankfully, it's as well the least intense. It can concluding from a few hours to several weeks, oftentimes without any noticeable or bothersome contractions.

The second stage, or active labor, unremarkably lasts a few hours. By this time, you'll probably be in the hospital or birthing center, and your contractions will become stronger and longer (lasting nigh xl to 60 seconds).

The 3rd and final stage is called transitional labor, and it tends to exist the nigh intense stage. It's also the shortest, generally lasting from 15 minutes to an hour.

Prepare for a strep test

No, non the kind of strep that causes pharynx infections. During calendar week 36 or 37, your doc will test you for group B strep (GBS), a type of bacteria that'south found in the vagina.

GBS bacteria is ordinarily harmless to the many adults who carry it — and an estimated 1 in 4 pregnant women exercise, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — but it can cause a serious infection in a newborn during childbirth.

To test for GBS, your practitioner will take swabs of your vagina and rectum. If the results are positive, you'll be given antibiotics through an IV during labor, so at that place'due south little adventure of you passing the infection to your baby.

From the What to Expect editorial team and Heidi Murkoff, author ofWhat to Expect When You're Expecting. What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses simply apparent sources, such every bit peer-reviewed studies, bookish enquiry institutions and highly respected health organizations. Acquire how we keep our content accurate and up-to-date by reading our medical review and editorial policy.

What to Expect When You're Expecting, 5th edition, Heidi Murkoff.

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