At 39 weeks your baby is finally ready for the real world. Her facial features are completely formed. Her eyes can now stay open and her ears are poking out from her head. She continues to put on a layer of fat to help her regulate her body temperature after birth. It very likely may be that she weighs a bit over 7 pounds and measures 20 inches.

When you go to your doctor every week now, she will do an abdominal exam to check how much your baby has grown and to see what position she’s in. There is no way for your doctor to know when your baby will be coming. If you go past your due date your doctor will probably give you a sonogram to see if it’s safe to continue the pregnancy. Usually, doctors will induce you if you are between one and two weeks overdue.

While you’re waiting for your baby to arrive it’s important to remember to pay attention to your baby’s actions. At this point your baby should remain really active and be sure to let your doctor know if there’s a decrease in activity because that’s a sign of a problem.

In response to the question, “What should I expect from my body after birth?” – Dana H. from Kentucky

1. Starting from right after you give birth you’re going to be losing some of the water weight. You probably won’t return to your pre-pregnancy size for a while but after your first week you may lose up to 4 pounds of water.
2. Right after your baby is born you will have lochia discharge.  This is a result of  the cells from your lining of your uterus shedding.  In the beginning this discharge is mixed with blood so it’s a dark red but gradually is slows down to a white or yellowish color until it finally stops.
3. After the first week or two of giving birth, many new mothers  find themselves to be moody, tired, and unable to sleep. Your appetite may change as well, you might want to eat more or eat less. The good news is, this usually only lasts for a week or two.

Have any questions that you’d like us to feature here? I’d love to hear from you! Click here to contact me directly.

Due to the overwhelming amount of responses and questions, we cannot publish every question. However, you will receive a personal response to your question.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Childbirth, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Diaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.