Week 38: Your pregnancy
Your baby’s growth: Growth slows down
This is the week that your baby begins to outgrow the watery home where she's been developing these past 9 months. She should weigh almost 7 pounds this week, but at a length of about 21 inches, she hasn't grown much taller. The average full-term newborn weighs from 6 to 9 pounds and is 18 to 21 inches long.
Here are a few other developments this week:
- Slowing growth. Although your baby's growth is slowing, fat will continue to accumulate to help insulate her even more for entry to the outside world.
- Meconium (baby's feces). It will continue to build up in her intestines.
- Head. By now the circumference of your baby's head and abdomen are about the same.
What’s happening with you
- More bathroom breaks. As your baby puts more pressure on your bladder this week, your need to urinate increases.
- How big is the baby? Since you're probably visiting your doctor on a weekly basis, you can ask for an estimate of the exact size of your baby. However, these estimates are only educated predictions—no one will know her precise size until birth.
If your doctor does an ultrasound, it’s fairly accurate at this point in estimating fetal weight by measuring diameter and circumference of your baby's head and abdomen, and length of the leg bone. But even an accurate fetal-weight estimate can't predict how easily the baby will fit through your pelvis and the birth canal. Your doctor usually won't be able to tell whether your baby will move easily down the birth canal until labor begins.
