36 Weeks

At the end of this week, you're going to reach an important pregnancy milestone: Your baby will be considered full-term! That means you could give birth very soon. Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term. (Yayyyy, how exciting that Noah is full term and could hypothetically be born next week!) The countdown continues… and in fetal developments: most of the bones (soft skull aside) in their little body are now completely hardened, providing a solid structure from which they can now make their grand debut into the world. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are structurally ready for a secure launch. In physical fitness news: their muscle tone has also improved over these past few weeks, and you’ll definitely be impressed by their steel-like Ulnar grasp (a newborn reflex that occurs if you lay your finger in their palm). Finally, in the fluids/excretion department: the amniotic fluid-to-baby ratio has fallen over these past weeks, although they’re still swallowing fluid, and some vernix caseosa. Just in case you didn’t get it quite yet: you’ve got yourself an adorable and hungry 6 lbs 20 inch baby—are you ready? Your baby will still continue packing on the pounds - at the rate of about an ounce a day...until he is ready to be born.