(bright music)
- At week 37, your no-longer-little peach,
is ripe and ready.
In fact, even if she arrived
a tad earlier than expected,
she wouldn't be considered premature.
Still, she's smart to stay
put, which, like most babies,
she's likely to do.
With just three more weeks to
go inside her uterine home,
she'll manage to pack on a pound or more,
rounding out her frame and
rounding up her birth weight,
happily, without you having
to gain another ounce.
By now it's likely, your
soon-to-be born baby
has rotated south, to
a head-first position.
Not all babies make this downward turn.
About three to four percent of fetuses
opt to stay stubbornly in the
upright or breech position.
If this is your first pregnancy,
there's a chance your little one's head
has or will soon drop into your pelvis,
in a process that's called engagement,
or lightening, since it
lightens the pressure
on your long-cramped diaphragm.
Engagement also means
that your little bundle
is locked and loaded and
in position for departure,
even if that departure isn't scheduled
for two or more weeks.
Baby hasn't dropped yet? Not to worry.
She'll make her way
down and out eventually,
just in her own sweet time.
Second babies almost always
wait to do their dropping
until the labor party gets started.
Have you been feeling
fewer punches and kicks?
The fact that baby's
dropped is one reason.
Her too-squished-to-move
quarters is another.
Or, it could be that she's doing
some more regular snoozing,
clocking in long cycles of
20 to 40 minutes of shut-eye.
Let's hope she keeps that up
when she's on the outside.
What's keeping her busy while she
bides her time before due date?
She's sucking her thumb to
practice her nursing skills,
brushing up on her breathing
by inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid
and blinking to prepare to
protect her eyes when she's born.
She's also busy accumulating more fat,
forming dimples in those cute
elbows, knees and shoulders,
and adorable creases and
folds in the neck and wrists.
Bet you can't wait to kiss those dimples
and caress those creases.
It won't be long now.
(bright music)
