Week 29
Your baby is about 37.6 cm (14.8 in) from crown to heel and weighs about 1 kg (2.2 lb), around the weight of a bag of sugar. Babies vary, and from here many gain roughly 200 g (7 oz) a week. The bones are hardening, the senses are sharpening, and your baby's sense of smell is developing alongside taste.
You may feel your baby's feet under your ribs and notice your body changing quickly. This week is a practical one: choosing who will care for your baby after birth, thinking about who will support you in labour, and getting ready for feeding, whichever way you plan to feed.
Day 197 · 28 weeks 0 days
Your baby is building strong bones
Your baby now weighs about 1 kg, and the next weeks bring rapid gain. Much of it is fat, but the skeleton is busy too. Bones that began as soft cartilage are hardening as calcium and phosphorus are laid down. By birth, your baby will have about 300 bones and cartilage pieces, some of which will fuse together during childhood.
The skull is the exception to hardening. Its plates stay separate, with soft spots between them called fontanelles. This lets the head mould slightly during birth and gives the brain room to keep growing in the first years. All that calcium comes from you. If you don't get enough, your body will draw on your own stores to supply your baby. Most people need about 1,000 mg of calcium a day in pregnancy, the same as other adults. Three servings of milk, yogurt, cheese or a fortified plant drink usually covers it. Canned salmon or sardines with bones, tofu made with calcium, almonds and leafy greens add more. Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium; your prenatal vitamin likely contains some.
Try this: Count your servings of calcium-rich food today, and add one if you fall short.
Day 198 · 28 weeks 1 day
Choose who will care for your baby after birth
Your baby will need regular checkups from the first days of life: to check feeding and weight, look for jaundice, give vaccines and track growth. It helps to decide who will provide that care before your baby arrives, because the first visit often happens within a few days of birth. Depending on where you live, your baby's care may come from a pediatrician (a doctor who specializes in children), a family doctor who sees the whole family, a nurse practitioner, or your midwife for the first weeks. In some areas, family doctors and pediatricians have waiting lists, so starting early helps.
When choosing, think about practical things. Is the office easy to reach? What are the hours, and what happens after hours or on weekends? Who will you see if your usual doctor is away? Some clinics offer a "meet and greet" visit before the birth. Ask how they support feeding, whether they have a nurse line for questions, and how they handle urgent same-day visits.
Your hospital or birth centre may ask for your baby's doctor's name when you arrive. Having the information ready saves a scramble later. Try this: Ask friends or your care provider for two or three names, and phone one office this week to ask if they are taking new babies.
Day 199 · 28 weeks 2 days
Think about who you want beside you in labour
Continuous support during labour, from someone who stays with you throughout, is linked with shorter labours, less need for pain medicine and a more positive experience of birth. It is one of the simplest things you can plan.
Your support could be a partner, a family member, a close friend, or a doula, a trained birth companion who offers emotional and physical support but no medical care. Some people have two support people so that one can rest. Ask your birth unit how many people they allow, as rules vary.
Think about what you want from your support person. Do you want them to hold your hand, offer water, rub your back, speak up for your wishes, or simply be calm and quiet? Some people want lots of encouragement; others want very few words. There's no right answer, but it helps to say it out loud ahead of time.
Your support person will also need a plan. Who will care for older children or pets? How will they get to the hospital or birth centre? Can they take time off at short notice? Add their name and these details to your birth plan.
Try this: Have a 15-minute talk with your support person about what you'd find helpful in labour, and what you'd find unhelpful.
Day 200 · 28 weeks 3 days
Sore ribs are a sign your baby has moved up
Today is day 200. Your uterus now reaches well above your belly button, and your baby's feet may be wedged right under your ribs. Many people feel a sharp kick there, or a constant ache along one side, often worse when sitting.
Your rib cage also widens in pregnancy to give your lungs more room, and the stretching of the muscles and ligaments can cause soreness. It often eases when your baby drops lower in the pelvis in the last weeks. Posture helps. Sit up tall rather than slumped, so there is more space between your ribs and your hips. Stretching one arm overhead and leaning gently to the opposite side can relieve pressure. Some people get relief by getting on hands and knees for a few minutes, which lets the baby move away from the ribs. A gentle nudge can shift a foot that's stuck in one place.
Call your care provider if you have pain under your right ribs that is constant or severe, especially with a headache, vision changes or nausea. This can be a sign of pre-eclampsia or a liver or gallbladder problem, and it needs checking.
Try this: Each time you sit down today, roll your shoulders back and lengthen your spine before you settle.
Day 201 · 28 weeks 4 days
A little preparation makes feeding easier, whichever way you choose
In week 27 you began thinking about feeding. Now is a good time to get ready, because the early days go more smoothly with some knowledge in hand.
If you plan to breastfeed or chestfeed, a prenatal feeding class is worth the time; many hospitals and community health centres offer them free, in person or online. Learning about latch, positioning and how to tell your baby is getting enough makes a real difference in the first week. Find out who can help after birth: a lactation consultant, a public health nurse, a midwife or a peer support group. Save their numbers now.
If you plan to use formula, learn how to prepare it safely before the baby comes. Standard infant formula is fine for most babies; you don't need an expensive brand. Always follow the package directions for mixing, use clean bottles, and never water down formula or make your own. Ask your care provider about the safest water to use where you live.
If you plan to combine both, ask about how to do it while protecting your milk supply.
Feeding is learned by you and your baby together. Help is normal and expected.
Try this: Sign up for a feeding class, or find the phone number of a local feeding support service and save it.
Day 202 · 28 weeks 5 days
Your changing body deserves kindness, including from you
By now your body looks quite different from how it did a few months ago. For some people that is a source of pride and wonder. For others, it brings unease: clothes that don't fit, a face that looks rounder, new marks on the skin, a body that no longer moves the way it used to. Many people feel both.
Comments from others can make it harder. As you read in week 23, you can set limits on remarks and touch, and you don't owe anyone an explanation. It may also help to notice what your body is doing, not just how it looks: carrying and growing a whole new person.
The weight you gain in pregnancy goes mostly to your baby, the placenta, amniotic fluid, extra blood and fluid, larger breasts and uterus, and fat stores that support feeding. Your care provider tracks your gain, so you don't need to watch the scale yourself.
Call your care provider if worry about your weight or shape leads you to skip meals, make yourself sick or exercise to compensate. Eating disorders can flare in pregnancy, and help is available without judgment. Try this: Wear something today that feels comfortable and makes you feel like yourself.
Day 203 · 28 weeks 6 days
Your baby's sense of smell is waking up
In week 21 you read that your baby tastes traces of your meals in the amniotic fluid. Taste and smell work closely together, and your baby's sense of smell is developing now too. The nostrils, which were plugged earlier in pregnancy, have opened, and as your baby moves fluid in and out, scent molecules reach the nose.
Your baby cannot smell the way you do, because there is no air in the uterus. But the nerves that detect smell are working, and they are learning the particular scent of the fluid, which is shaped partly by what you eat. After birth, this pays off quickly. Newborns are drawn to the smell of amniotic fluid and of their parent's skin and milk, and within days they can recognize their own parent's scent. Smell helps a baby find the breast or chest in the first hour, and a familiar scent can be calming.
You don't need to do anything special now. Your usual varied meals, following the food safety advice from earlier in the book, are enough. After the birth, some people skip strong perfume or scented lotions for a few weeks and spend plenty of time skin to skin, so their own scent is easy for the baby to find.
For your partner: Cook a favourite family dish this week, spices and all, and share the meal together.