Child Developement

After 36 weeks

At this stage, your body is officially ready to deliver the baby. A baby that has completed 36 weeks is known to have fully grown and mature to meet the world. There are three things that you should pay attention to.

1. The movement of the baby

2. Braxton-hicks and Delivery pain

3. The hospital bag

Since the baby is fully developed and big (>3 kg), she'll not have enough room to move around. So you can almost always feel the baby moving. When you're calm and lying on your left, the baby should kick at least 8-12 times average. If not, don't panic and try eating the baby's favorite food (you'll know it by now) and try again. If there are still lesser movements, contact your OB-GYN right away.

Braxton-hicks are labour pain like contractions. For some they're mild. Be aware of it and don't panic if you have them earlier. Researches say some may experience these as early as 17 weeks. These are NOT labour pains. Delivery pains are not same for everyone either. The baby's head will be putting pressure in your abdomen and you'll feel like you want to loo; but this is at the end stage of delivery.

A typical hospital bag should contain things like- Sanitary pads and 'newborn' diapers, small use and throw cloths, Wraps for baby, flask and water bottle, rubber sheet for baby, wet wipes, Night pajamas/Feeding Nighties/Gowns, Feeding bra- okay, as far as I know, some people don't use bra at all in this time and that is WRONG. You should wear at least a loose bra so that you can avoid the sagging and the baby will have issues in latching if the breasts are saggy. Take a feeding pillow and breast pump if you want ( Well, I had them but never used more than a few times).

DO NOT PANIC- it's the key.

A heads up!
After the delivery, no matter you have a C section or a vaginal delivery, make the most out of the first few days to rest well. Your body would have undergone a major changeover and it needs plenty of healing before it could come to normalcy. Use this time to listen to your body and address its concerns to the OB-GYN. If you are that 'independent' woman, it's better to have people to help you out at this time. I personally, felt very humiliated when I got to know that I had to use bed-pan for the first two days after the delivery (I had a c section). Be ready for the awkward moments; be cool about them. It is the normalcy after delivery.
For the first 90-120 days, it'll be  roller coaster ride. We will see about those days in my next post :)