Pregnancy: 37 weeks!

(Source: babycentre.com.au)

Only two weeks or so to go! This week, your baby is busy shedding his downy coating of fine hair (called lanugo) and his coat of vernix caseosa — the cheesy substance that protects his developing skin. Your baby swallows both of these secretions, which stay in the bowels until birth. Then your baby will excrete a blackish waste called meconium that becomes his first bowel movement. Meanwhile, you may be feeling huge — and increasingly impatient. But try to get as much rest as possible — even if sleep is difficult, you'll appreciate it after the birth.

Your baby weighs close to 2.8 kilograms and may be about 50 centimetres long from head to toe. Your baby's head is now cradled in your pelvic cavity -- surrounded and protected by your pelvic bones. This position clears some much-needed space for her growing legs and buttocks. Many babies now have a full head of hair, with locks maybe around 2.5 centimetres long. But don't be surprised if his hair isn't the same colour as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes taken aback when their children are born with bright red or blond hair, and fair-haired couples likewise can produce babies with dark hair. And then, of course, some babies don't have any hair at all.

Speaking of hair, most of the downy coat of lanugo that covered your baby from 26 weeks has disappeared, and so has most of the vernix caseosa, the whitish substance that also covers him. Your baby will swallow his lanugo and exterior coating, along with other secretions, and store them in his bowels. These will become your infant's first bowel movement, a blackish waste called meconium.


Baby Minga is becoming extremely heavy on my lower pelvic area. You can literally see my belly flopping downwards. Everyone keeps on saying how pointy & compact my tummy is. My tummy literally looks like an egg.. sigh...

At 37th week, I now weigh 72kg which means I have gained 14kg since pre-pregnancy. I'm 2kg over the avg weight gain of 12kg. So not too bad...
Today we went to visit our gynae for our regular 37th week check up. Like usual, my blood pressure is good so no signs of Pre-eclampsia. Dr Chew also felt the bub to see if he's in the correct position. Like always, baby Minga decides to move left right and centre non-stop. My belly looked like it was doing a mexican wave. Dr Chew told us that he was lying on his side so neither anterior or posterior position. She told us that we will only get concerned with his position during labour.

The one bad news she told me was that my test result came back positive for Strep B which is a common bacteria found in the intestine. This means I will need to be on a drip during labour with anti-biotics pumped to baby so that he does not get infected when he comes out... Apparently this is also very common in pregnant women. Golly gosh.. why am I so lucky?! More needles in my arms.. just great!

She also said baby Minga is below average Aussie size baby so this means it should be easy for me to deliver him naturally. Thank God!

On avg, my gynae consultation costs $60 per visit & I've just discovered Medicare covers $55 of it so that means I only paid $5 out of my own pocket! that's not bad at all! However, as for my gynae's fees during delivery, that usually costs $2000 but because I've only seen my gynae from 33wks onwards, she has given me a 50% off discount. So I ended up paying $1000. When I went to medicare to claim the amount back, I was so disappointed to only get back $112! So yes, less than 12% back! Now I know where all the baby bonus money goes to...

My very stretched tummy has become increasingly itchy. Dr has told me to put stretchmark cream which I had actually stopped doing cos everyone told me it doesn't work. Apparently, you should cream up anyway to prevent your skin from drying and therefore itching... oops! I didn't know that!

Lastly, just as we walked out the door of our doctor's consultation room, she said to us 'oh and don't forget to get up to no good from now onwards as this will help to trigger off labour'. Both Mr M & I were thrown off by her comment as we've never heard that one before from a doctor and we really thought we had heard her incorrectly! t'was such a funny moment...

This week, my mah-mi has also washed Baby Minga's bed linen, his bunny rugs, fleece blankets & towels. I've also packed all of my labour bag as well as Baby Minga's bag for our 5 days stay in the hospital. So we are all nearly there for his arrival. It's now just a waiting game and I'm getting more and more impatient!

I'm getting more and more ready for the actual day of marathon...
C'mon baby.. be good and work with mummy now :)