36 Week Update

I can't believe I have 36 weeks down (actually almost 37) and only a little over 3 to go until my due date! WoW. We are both getting so anxious to meet her! I had an appointment today and my doctor said I was 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced. She said she'd be "really surprised" if I made it to my due date. Now, I have learned from friends that does not really mean anything so I'm doing my best not to get my hopes up. But the best news is that she thought things were setting up well to hopefully have a regular delivery, and that was reassuring to hear!

I'm going to go ahead and post a combination of the 36 and 37 week developmental milestones sicne I'm kind of posting in between weeks.

Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. At 36 weeks, she weighs around 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement. At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position.

At 37 weeks, your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, her lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away.Your baby weighs around 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.