10 Dec 2003 - 4:40pm - 30 Weeks

Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds and is about 14 1/2 inches long from head to toe. In boys, testicles move from near the kidneys through the groin en route to the scrotum. In girls, the clitoris is relatively prominent because it's not yet covered by the still-small labia, which will cover it in the last few weeks before birth).

The baby's head is getting bigger, and brain growth is very rapid at this time. Nearly all babies react to sound by 30 weeks. Your baby may be up all night and asleep all day. This may mean less uninterrupted snooze time for you during the next 11 weeks, but doesn't necessarily mean your baby will be a night owl after birth.

Your baby's nutritional needs reach their peak during the third trimester. You'll need plenty of protein, vitamin C, folic acid, iron, and calcium (about 200 milligrams is deposited in your baby's skeleton every day). The skeleton hardens even more, and the brain, muscles, and lungs continue to mature.

Moms, you may notice that the baby is gradually dropping. This is called lightening, and it can feel like anything from increased pressure low in your abdomen to a sensation that the baby's going to fall out. Don't worry — he won't. On the physical health front, breathing and eating may be easier for you now, but walking may be uncomfortable, and you probably feel like you have to pee all the time. Oh, the joys of pregnancy!

Aches and pains may become bothersome as your uterus grows and the joints of the pelvis begin to loosen in preparation for delivery. It's easy to acquire back problems if you allow yourself to slump when sitting or standing. Don't stop exercising. Walking (or swimming) is important and can make you feel more energetic. Exercises designed for strengthening the abdominal muscles, which support the back, can help. After the fourth month of pregnancy, you should avoid exercising while lying on your back, according to recent guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

I feel as if I start off every one of these with "Wow! Another week has passed already?? Where does the time go?" - and thus I really should come up with another opening line. And, yet, I'm still amazed at how quickly the weeks are slipping away from me. In just two weeks, we'll be down to the single digits in our countdown... For we are at 29 weeks pregnant this week, with only 11 weeks remaining until our due date arrives.

My sister is already in the single digits. She's due on February 2nd.

One of my coworkers asked me the other day how many weeks I was, and I immediately piped back with "11 weeks!" A very confused look passed her face, and it took me a few moments to realize why... "Oh," I said, sheepishly. "You mean how many weeks along I am. Sorry, I've gotten to the point where I'm counting down instead of up." :)

Of course, as we grow ever closer, I wonder more and more whether the tendency for premature births is hereditary... and whether our baby will be early, too. Certainly I don't have some of my mother's problems (at least not yet, or not that I am aware of) - like an incompetent cervix - but she didn't carry a single one of us to term. The closest one to the due date was my sister, Jackie, and she was two weeks early. The rest of us were all premies (meaning more than 3 weeks early).

Of course, we continue to hold out the hope for a Leap Year Baby, but some days I really don't think our child is going to wait that long... especially not when s/he is kicking down, as if s/he's trying to kick her way out. But, time will tell.

I've certainly got a big tummy now (which surprised Arkady when I saw her the other night, as it had been many weeks since she saw me last); I really should measure again to find out just how big. My mobility is getting more and more limited in that regards - and certainly when I have a full tummy, I feel impossibly huge and bloated.

Our little one seems to enjoy resting underneath my right ribs, especially when we're in the car - for that reason, I'll be glad when the baby drops. I can't help but picture that spot as his/her "comfy spot" - snuggling up - despite the discomfort it causes me. I always try to massage the top of the baby's head when s/he does that, in the hopes of coaxing him/her gently to move. My sister, Julie, suggested that I get a cold drink and rest it on that spot on my tummy - it's what she did to encourage her baby to move when she was uncomfortable. Hmmm... a trick I should remember.

Our child either loves or hates being in the car, because s/he always becomes quite active once we start driving, moving around and kicking. It makes for an interesting - if sometimes uncomfortable - drive home every evening. And gives John ample opportunity to feel the baby moving. I confess I get teary-eyed every time I see that "wow" expression in his eyes when he feels the baby moving beneath his hand.

Oh, yes, these are definitely among "the best days of my life."

When I tell people that I am anxious for my due date to arrive, they usually nod their heads in a knowing fashion and say, "Yes, I can imagine... tired of being pregnant? Want to be rid of your baby belly?"

I find it difficult to articulate that it's not the pregnancy itself that I am wanting to end. But rather that I desperately long to be able to see the child growing in me, to hold him/her in my arms, to have our baby with us.

I haven't found pregnancy to be as burdensome as you are often told it is. Oh, sure, months 2-4 sucked, so far as being sick all the time went, and there are moments when the baby is under my ribs and pressing against my lungs that I long to have my body back. But I have, and am, enjoying being pregnant. There is nothing - nothing! - like the sensation of feeling your child growing inside you, of the baby kicking or hiccuping or moving. It is the most amazing, wonderful, and awe-inspiring sensation in all the world, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Anything. I know that when the baby is born, I am going to miss that sense of closeness and intimacy, going to miss feeling those sensations every waking and sleeping moment, of being reassured every time s/he moves that I am a part of an amazing miracle. (Of course, it will be replaced by the amazement of holding and raising our child, which will be wonderful in and of itself!).

Of course, I'm only a week or two into my third trimester, so maybe the discomforts will grow, and I'll understand what most women complain about. And, yet, I cannot help but to feel that regardless, I am going to enjoy my remaining weeks of pregnancy.

That being said, I soooooooo cannot wait for our baby to be here.

Except for that whole labor and childbirth thing. But as I tell John, I just blank that out of my mind. I don't think about it any more than I can help it. It's going to be painful, and no fun to go through... but it will also pass, and undoubtedly the memory will fade in the same way those months of sickness early on did. And at the end of it, the doctor will place my child in my arms to hold, and it won't matter how much pain I'm in - my baby will be here. So I just hold to that thought, and try to ignore the rest.

I at once feel as if our due date is so impossibly far away, and I desperately wish to have our baby home now. But I know that time will pass far quicker than either of us will be ready for... just eleven weeks remaining.

At least now our little one has names chosen, and the baby's room is slowly getting cleared out (leaving our home in somewhat disarray, but at least it's getting done now), and we're preparing for our baby's arrival.

Just eleven weeks to go.