Week 31
This week your baby measures about 39.9 cm (15.7 in) from crown to heel and weighs roughly 1.3 kg (2.9 lb), close to a small cabbage. Babies vary, and your baby's own growth curve matters more than any single number. The brain is growing quickly and folding into its familiar grooves, and a layer of fat is filling out the skin.
For you, the extra weight up front is starting to show in your sleep, your hips and your back. This week looks at those changes: restless nights, pelvic pain, what a growth scan is for, and eating well when space is tight. It also turns to two quieter subjects that deserve time: worries about birth, and who will help you once the baby is home.
Day 211 · 30 weeks 0 days
Your baby is laying down fat for life outside
As you read in week 28, your baby's brain is folding and growing fast, and that work carries on through these weeks. Today's focus is something you will soon feel in your arms: fat.
Until recently your baby was lean, with thin, slightly see-through skin. Now fat is building up underneath, and it will make up much of the weight gained from here to birth. It smooths out the wrinkles and rounds the cheeks, arms and legs.
This fat has a job. Inside the womb, your body keeps your baby at a steady temperature. After birth, your baby has to stay warm without that help, and the layer under the skin works like insulation. Babies born early have less of it, which is one reason they often need an incubator or a heated cot for a while. Fat stores also give your baby energy in the first days, while feeding gets going.
You do not need to eat extra fat, or any special food, to make this happen. A varied diet with enough energy, which you will read about in a few days, gives your baby what it needs. Your care provider keeps an eye on growth at each visit.
Try this: Compare a side-on photo of your bump from a few weeks ago with one taken today. Much of the change from here on is your baby filling out.
Day 212 · 30 weeks 1 day
Sleepless nights have reasons, and some fixes
Many people sleep worse in the third trimester than at any other point in pregnancy. The reasons pile up: getting comfortable around the bump, trips to the bathroom, heartburn, leg cramps, a baby who wakes up just as you lie down, and a mind that will not switch off.
You cannot fix all of that, but some habits from sleep research help. Keep a fairly regular wake-up time, even after a poor night. Make the bedroom cool and dark. Put screens away about an hour before bed. If you are awake and frustrated for more than 20 minutes or so, get up, do something calm in low light, and go back when you feel sleepy. Lying in bed and fighting it tends to make it worse.
Use pillows freely: one between the knees, one behind your back, one under the bump. A short daytime rest is fine if it does not stop you sleeping at night.
Do not start sleeping pills, antihistamines or herbal sleep aids without checking with your care provider or pharmacist first. Some are fine, some are not.
Call your care provider if poor sleep comes with low mood, constant worry, or snoring with gasping or pauses in breathing.
Try this: Choose one wind-down habit tonight, such as a warm shower and a book instead of your phone, and keep it for a week.
Day 213 · 30 weeks 2 days
Pain at the front of your pelvis has a name
If you feel a sharp or aching pain at the pubic bone, in the groin, or at the back of the pelvis, you may have pelvic girdle pain. It is common, affecting roughly one pregnant person in five. Hormones loosen the joints of the pelvis to prepare for birth, and the growing weight of the baby adds strain.
It often hurts most when you stand on one leg: climbing stairs, getting dressed, getting out of a car, or rolling over in bed. Some people feel a click or grinding at the front.
Small changes help. Keep your knees together when you get in and out of the car or turn in bed. Sit down to put on pants and shoes. Take stairs one step at a time. Avoid heavy lifting and wide-legged positions. A pillow between the knees at night can ease the ache.
A physiotherapist, ideally one who works with pregnant people, can give you exercises, show you how to move, and sometimes fit a support belt. Ask for a referral rather than waiting it out. Pelvic girdle pain is uncomfortable but not harmful to the baby, and it usually settles after birth. It does not rule out a vaginal birth, though it is worth noting in your birth plan.
Try this: Practise getting into a car today by sitting first, then swinging both legs in together.
Day 214 · 30 weeks 3 days
If you are sent for a growth scan
Your visits now come every two or three weeks in many places, as you read in week 27, and each includes a check of your fundal height. If that measurement is smaller or larger than expected for your dates, or if you have a condition such as diabetes or high blood pressure, you may be offered a growth scan.
A growth scan is an ultrasound that measures your baby's head, belly and thigh bone. These numbers give an estimated weight, which is plotted on a chart to show how your baby is growing over time. The scan also checks the amount of amniotic fluid and often the blood flow in the umbilical cord.
Weight estimates in late pregnancy are rough. They can be off by 10 to 15 percent either way, so the trend across two scans a couple of weeks apart says more than one result. Many babies who measure small or large are simply small or large, and healthy.
If the scan does suggest your baby is not growing as expected, your care team may suggest closer checks, and sometimes an earlier birth. Being sent for a scan is a common precaution, not a sign that something is wrong. Try this: If you are booked for a growth scan, ask beforehand what the result could change, and when and how you will hear it.
Day 215 · 30 weeks 4 days
Smaller meals make more sense now
Your stomach has less room than it did. The uterus pushes up against it, which is why a normal-sized dinner can leave you uncomfortably full or bring on heartburn. Eating smaller amounts more often, perhaps five or six times a day, usually feels better.
Your needs have changed a little too. In the third trimester you need roughly 450 extra calories a day compared with before pregnancy, about the size of a generous snack, not a second dinner. The baby is building bones and storing iron, so calcium and iron still matter.
Good small meals and snacks include yogurt with fruit, a boiled egg and toast, hummus with vegetables and pita, a handful of nuts with an apple, or a bowl of lentil soup. Pairing iron-rich foods such as beans, lentils, meat or fortified cereal with a source of vitamin C, such as oranges, peppers or tomatoes, helps your body absorb the iron.
Keep drinking water through the day. It helps with constipation, swelling and the dark-urine headaches that sneak up on busy days.
Try this: Stock a "grab shelf" in your fridge or bag with three ready snacks so you are not caught hungry and empty-handed.
Day 216 · 30 weeks 5 days
It is normal to feel afraid of giving birth
As the birth gets closer, it becomes real in a new way. Many people find themselves worrying: about pain, about tearing, about something going wrong, about losing control in front of strangers. If you have had a hard birth before, old memories can come back strongly now.
Some worry is normal and can even be useful, because it pushes you to learn and plan. Naming the fear specifically helps. "I'm scared" is hard to work with. "I'm scared the pain will be too much" leads to a conversation about pain relief options. "I'm scared of needing a caesarean" leads to questions about when and why that happens.
Talk to your care provider about what frightens you. They hear these worries often and can explain what usually happens, what choices you have, and what support exists. Prenatal classes help many people feel more in control.
For some, the fear is intense enough to affect sleep, daily life, or the wish to go through with a vaginal birth. This is sometimes called tokophobia, and it is treatable. Counselling and a clear plan made with your care team make a real difference.
Call your care provider if fear or anxiety is taking over your days, or you notice flashbacks or panic when you think about birth.
Try this: Write down your top three birth worries in one sentence each, and bring the list to your next appointment.
Day 217 · 30 weeks 6 days
Plan the help you will need after the birth
It is easy to put all your planning into the birth itself. Yet the weeks afterwards are often harder than people expect, with healing, broken sleep and feeding every two to three hours around the clock. Help planned now is much easier to accept later.
Start by thinking about the practical jobs: meals, laundry, shopping, older children, pets, and getting to appointments. Then think about the people who might cover them. A grandparent, a friend who loves to cook, a neighbour who can walk the dog, a paid helper if that fits your budget. Be specific when you ask. "Could you bring dinner on the Tuesday after we get home?" works better than "Let us know if you can help." Some families set up a shared calendar or meal train.
Also find out what professional support exists near you: home visits from a midwife or nurse, breastfeeding or chest-feeding clinics, lactation consultants, postpartum doulas, and parent groups. Write down the numbers now, while you have time to look.
Finally, plan for your own rest. Someone who will hold the baby while you sleep for three hours can matter more than any gift.
For your partner: Make a list of the household jobs you will take over in the first six weeks, and talk it through together this week.