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Week 35: It's getting cramped in here!

Fetal development in pregnancy week 35

~length
18.2 in | 46 cm

~weight
5.25 lbs | 2.4 kg

Congratulations! You’re now carrying over 5 pounds of baby-goodness - not counting their amniotic fluid, the umbilical cord, or the placenta itself.

Developmentally, your wee womb-tenant has the fat-factory running at full tilt while their digestive system puts the finishing touches on critical organs in preparation for their first meal (remember - before birth, all of their nutrition was blood via the umbilical cord).

With their first meal in mind, it's time to look forward to one of the most important things you'll do for your infant - namely, keeping them alive with nothing more than your breasts.

If you're still unsure whether you want to breastfeed, just check out our "Ten Reasons to Breastfeed" in Week 28.

Breastfeeding Bootcamp

The first three months are Breastfeeding Bootcamp as your newborn's tiny new stomach and bumblebee-like metabolism = you breastfeeding at least every two hours of the day and night - often times more.

As a result, you'll both be waking up multiple times in the middle of the night to feed for the first year - this is perfectly normal and your infant's cries should never be ignored (again, the older generations well-intended advice is exactly wrong).

Because a newborn's tummy has never been used, many foods you can eat without issue will cause them painful gas cramps when passed into your breastmilk.

So, for the first three months: eat bland stuff. No onions, no beans, no citrus juices or foods with high acidity, no foods that make YOU fart. Taking these measures will save you from a gassy crying infant who won't be soothed by anything until the pain is gone.

Don't worry about waking your newborn to breastfeed - they'll wake up when they're hungry - unfortunately for your sleep needs.

Sleep whenever your baby sleeps, as sleeping is critical to a healthy postpartum recovery.

If possible - for the first six weeks you should exclusively breastfeed without interference from a pump, bottle, or pacifier to avoid nipple confusion.

Breastfeed "on demand" (aka whenever your infant cries in a dry diaper) and ignore the well-meant advice of older generations who scheduled their infant's meals at set times.

Only your baby knows when he or she is hungry, and your milk supply will thank you for feeding on demand.

The Breastfeeding Bootcamp isn't just about hunger. The non-stop feeding strengthens your infant's suckling reflex and jaw muscles, while soothing them in a world that is otherwise highly disorienting and frightening.

Nothing works quite as well as your "breast-plug" when you want to cease a fussy newborn's cries. Trust us, there's no shame in being a human pacifier!

Share your baby's development on Facebook!

MY BABY'S PROGRESS: WEEK 35

Only 5 more weeks to go

Holy Moly! I'm now carrying 6 lbs of baby not counting their amniotic fluid, the umbilical cord, or the placenta itself. In terms of my labor and birth, studies show that getting an epidural greatly increases ...

Tuesday at 19:16 via Baby Gaga · Comment · Like

Jeniece

Week 35 Calendar Girl

February 2012

Enter my photo!

And how's mom doing?

Okay superwoman, it's time to talk about labor and how you plan to cope.basically, your muscles are going to be like, "YO - THIS IS HARD!" when they're talking to your nerves, who'll be delivering these messages to your brain afterward, which you will then experience as pain

Get this into your head right now -- LABOR PAIN IS GOOD PAIN -- it's good for you and it's good for your baby.

Yes, contractions hurt, but unlike the pain of injury, it hurts because your muscles are being used in a way they've never been used before (or only rarely).

If you've been living under a rock: contractions are literally the slow process of squeezing your baby - via uterine muscular waves of motion, down your uterus into the birth canal.

So - basically, your muscles are going to be like, "YO - THIS IS HARD!" when they're talking to your nerves, who'll be delivering these messages to your brain afterward, which you will then experience as pain.

The important part of this process is your mental and emotional acceptance of this pain as good, rather than something upsetting that must be avoided.

LABOR PAIN IS GOOD PAIN because your body is working really hard to do something that's incredibly important.

As Captain Obvious would say, "That's why they call it labor."

It might not feel good, but let's be realistic here: how many times will your uterus do this job? All Duggar jokes aside, it's obviously a unique situation for your body.

Labor gets a bad rap because of the pain of contractions, but if you look at the big picture - beyond the pain, you'd see that your labor is an act of epic earth-shattering proportions.

Come on! It's the act of giving life, after all!

Even if you are a pain-pansy, you need to come to terms with two things: 1) labor will hurt and that's okay and 2) the more you accept the pain as good, the less it will hurt.

Regardless of whether you get an epidural and in spite of their popularity, every one of us would do well to remember that pain is a normal and important part of life.

Your brain's pain system usually warns you when something is wrong or broken, but this time - if you listen to your body and take the time to understand the epic nature of what's happening inside of you, you might begin to understand that a change of such amazing proportions is taking place inside of you that your entire body (pain signaling system included) cries out in its efforts to bear life.

One last time, just so you remember: LABOR PAIN IS GOOD PAIN.