Embryo Development Twenty-Eight Weeks

28 Weeks

He is about two and a half pounds now.

What you can expect at this month’s checkup:

This month you can expect yoru doctor to check the following:

Weight and blood pressure

Urine, for sugar and protein

Fetal heartbeat

Height of fundus (top of uterus)

Size and position of fetus by external palpation

Feet and hands swelling and legs for varicose veins

Symptoms you have been experiencing, especially unsual ones

Questions and problems you want to discuss

What you may be feeling: You may experience all of these symptoms at one time or another or only a few of them. Still others may hardly be noticed because you’ve become so used to them.

Stronger and more frequent fetal activity

Increasingly heavy whitish vaginal discharge

Lower abdominal achiness

Constipation

Heartburn, indigestion

Occasional headaches or dizziness

Nasal congestion and occasional nosebleed, ear stuffiness

Bleeding gums

Leg cramps

Backache

Mild swelling of ankles and feet and occasionally of hands and face

Varicose veins of the legs

Hemorrhoids

Itchy abdomen

Shortness of breath

Difficulty sleeping

Scattered Braxton Hicks contractions, usually painless (the uterus hardens for a minute, then returns to normal)

Clumsiness (which increases the risk of falling)

Colostrum, either leaking or expressed, from enlarged breasts

Increasing apprehension about motherhood, baby’s health and about delivery

Continued absentmindedness

Increased dreaming and fantasizing about the baby

Increased boredom and weariness with the pregnancy, the beginning of anxiousness for to be over