Pregnancy – Week 29

As your bub moves around, you will probably be able to feel his bottom and feet. You will need to sit down and rest more often now as he will be putting pressure on your stomach and diaphragm.

Mum

Now in your third trimester you may suffer symptoms like an aching back, leg cramps, insomnia and rib pain. Your appetite may increase too as your baby has a growth spurt this trimester so try to stick with healthy eating.

Make sure you’re getting enough iron preferably from meat, leafy greens and fortified cereals together with fibre-rich foods to help prevent constipation.

Introduce some moving and stretching activities if you haven’t already to help prepare your body for labour.

Bub

Baby is about 15 inches (38cm) long now and weighs around 1.1kg (2.6 pounds) taking up a lot of room in your uterus. His movements might be more pushing and stretching than kicking. Some kicks and punches may be quite hard and could even take your breath away now. Some babies place themselves into the head down position from now on.

This week baby’s brain is developing billions of neurons and his head is growing larger to accommodate it and the skeleton hardens more. The womb is becoming more cramped so while bub is still doing a lot of kicking and stretching, his movements may have lessened.

If bub is a boy, his testicles descend from near the kidneys through the groin to the scrotum. If a girl, the clitoris is prominent because it’s not yet covered by the labia which will grow to cover it in the last few weeks before delivery.

Tips

Your blood pressure may rise a little but if you get blurred vision, severe headaches, severe weight gain or severe swelling of limbs and face, contact your health care professional as these symptoms could be the beginning of pre-eclampsia.
Pre-eclampsia is a dangerous condition marked by high levels of protein in the urine and high blood pressure during pregnancy.