Your Pregnancy: Week 29
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Your Body
You should now start counting the baby’s kicks on a daily basis to make sure everything is going smoothly. You don’t have to count every single one – that would be a full-time job – but just take a few minutes in the morning and night to make sure you feel ten different movements (whether it’s a kick, jab or roll) within an hour. Remember baby could be napping, so be patient if it’s feeling quiet in there.
Your Baby
The baby is starting to settle into the proper birthing position – which is hopefully head down, facing your back. If the baby is breech (feet or buttocks first), putting you at risk for a C-section, or posterior (facing up toward your belly), putting you at risk for back labor, don’t panic just yet. There’s still time and room for the baby to flip and twist into position. Talk to your doctor or midwife about exercises you can do to coax a change for the better.
- Know the signs of premature labor.
- If you have other children or pets, enlist the help of a family member or neighbor for when you go into labor.
- Shop for items needed for postpartum recovery to avoid a last-minute scramble to the drug store.
- Pack your hospital bag.
Advice from Dr. Shari E. Brasner
In my experience, while women suffer from a variety of physical complaints during the third trimester, the symptoms are easier for them to understand than they had been during the first trimester. Back then, all the nausea, exhaustion, and those peculiar bodily sensations seemed excessive, given that the ‘baby’ was so tiny and abstract! The changes of the first trimester take place on a subtler chemical and hormonal level, but those of the third involve the much more obvious strains of carrying around both extra weight and extra fluid.”
Babble recommends Dr. Brasner’s pregnancy book, Advice from a Pregnant Obstetrician.
Mom-To-Mom Advice: Competitive Pregnancy
Do you find yourself comparing your belly to the bumps in Us Weekly? Your ardha chandrasanas to the yoga bunny on the mat next door? Do you hope to “succeed” at natural childbirth, where your sister caved and got the epidural?
Competition can be a healthy, if complicated, incentive, but in pregnancy, it doesn’t make a ton of sense. Everyone’s body and circumstances are unique. You may feel motivated by comparing yourself to others, but pregnancy is not like a sporting event, where if you just push yourself hard enough, you’ll win. We have no control of morning sickness, bed rest, whether the baby is breach or if we get stretch marks. More often than not, competition adds pressure in an area over which we have little say. This can create unnecessary stress and feelings of inadequacy.
If you find yourself going down this path, remind yourself that pregnancy is a singular experience. You are growing your own one-of-a-kind baby in your own one-of-a-kind body, and you’re doing it in your own personal way. What’s happening with the pregnant woman next door or the one on the screen may as well be happening on a different planet. Even comparing yourself to relatives can be tricky, as you’re dealing with a unique combination of factors. Every pregnancy is different. Moms who have been pregnant more than once will attest to this. This is your show; let yourself be the star.
Babble recommends From the Hips, by Rebecca Odes and Ceridwen Morris.
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