Embryo Development Eight Months

Eight Months

Braxton Hicks become ever more prevelant... look forward to it. The baby lets you know he is there.

Felipe making mommy look big What you can expect at this months’s checkups: After the 32th week, your doctor may ask you to come in every two weeks so you and your baby can be more closely monitored. You can expect the following to be checked:

Weight and blood pressure

Urine, for sugar and protein

Fetal heartbeat

Height of fundus (top of the uterus)

Size (you may get a rough weight estimate) and position of fetus by palpation

Feet and hands for swelling and legs for varicose veins

Symtoms 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 a one time or another or only a few of them. Some may have continued from last month, others may be new or hardly noticeable.

Strong, regular fetal activity

Increasingly heavy whitish vaginal discharge

Increased constipation

Heartburn, indigestion

Occasional headaches or dizziness

Nasal congestion and occasional nosebleeds, ear stuffiness

Bleeding gums

Leg cramps

Backache

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

Varicose veins of legs

Hemorrhoids

Itchy abdomen, protuding navel

Increasing shortness of breath as uterus crowds the lungs which eases when the baby drops

Difficulty sleeping

Increasing Braxton Hicks contractions

Increasing clumsiness

Colostrum, either leaking or expressed, from breasts (though this premilk substance may not appear until after delivery)

Increasing eagerness for the pregnancy to be over

Apprehension about the baby’s health, labor and delivery

Increasing absentmindedness

Excitement at the realization that it won’t be long now