37 Weeks

Your baby is now considered "full term," even though your due date is three weeks away. If you go into labor now, his lungs will likely be mature enough to fully adjust to life outside the womb. (Some babies need a bit more time, though. So if you're planning to have a repeat c-section, for example, your practitioner will schedule it for no earlier than 39 weeks unless there's a medical reason to intervene earlier.)

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

A lot has happened this week. Last Thursday I had a doctor's appointment. The doctor told me that I was dilated to 1 1/2 centimeters. David really wants to be able to deliver this baby so he talked to the doctor and the doctor said that if everything goes well that he will let David deliver the baby. 

I just had another doctor's appointment on Tuesday. This time I saw the nurse practitioner.  She told me that I was about 1 to 2 centimeters dilated. When she was measuring my belly she asked how big Jeffrey was when he was born. I told her that he was two weeks early and that he was 8 pounds 4 oz. She told me that she wanted to order an ultrasound for this baby because she was a little concerned about his size. She said that he was measuring one centimeter smaller than he should be. So we scheduled an ultrasound for that evening. Even though we were all a little worried, the ultrasound showed that he is perfectly healthy. They checked to make sure that he was a boy and he is definitely a boy! They also checked the size of his head, his spine, his femur, his kidneys, his bladder, and his heartbeat. Everything seems to be perfect! On Tuesday, I was around 37 weeks and 3 days and he was measuring 37 weeks and 1 day. The technician told us that he was around 6 pounds 15 ounces and that he might gain 1/2 a pound a week. We weren't able to see his face because he had his arms folded around his face. It is very comforting to know that our little guy is healthy!