37 Weeks
Your baby weighs close to 6.5 pounds / 2.8 kilograms and may be about 20 inches / 50 centimetres long from head to toe. Your baby’s head is now cradled in your pelvic cavity — surrounded and protected by your pelvic bones. This position clears some much-needed space for her growing legs and buttocks.
Many babies now have a full head of hair, with locks maybe around one inch / 2.5 centimetres long. But don’t be surprised if her hair isn’t the same colour as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes taken aback when their children are born with bright red or blond hair, and fair-haired couples likewise can produce babies with dark hair. And then, of course, some babies don’t have any hair at all.
Speaking of hair, most of the downy coat of lanugo that covered your baby from 26 weeks has disappeared, and so has most of the vernix caseosa, the whitish substance that also covers her. Your baby will swallow her lanugo and exterior coating, along with other secretions, and store them in her bowels. These will become your infant’s first bowel movement, a blackish waste called meconium.
Nice.
Is it etiquette to leave your mobile phone on during a funeral if you’re the priest?
Congratulations! Full term! Heave that sigh of relief!
(And don’t absolutely COUNT on just three weeks more. First babies are notoriously late–notwithstanding the questionable fidgetiness of obstetricians, who seem all too willing to induce labour. I’m very happy for the three of you!)