Week 39

Thank you Heavenly Father for the safe delivery of my child. Yeap... my baby was born on week 39 of my pregnancy. Never expect so soon he will came to greet us..... :-)

Baby development

Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

The average baby is about 20.5 inches / 51 centimetres long from head to toe and weighs approximately 7.5 pounds / 3.4 kilograms at birth, but anywhere between 5 pounds 11.5 ounces and 8 pounds 5.75 ounces / 2.5 and 3.8 kilograms is a healthy range for newborns.

Your amniotic fluid, once clear, is now pale and milky from your baby's shedding vernix caseosa. The outer layers of skin are also sloughing off as new skin forms underneath. In TV programmes, labour always begins with the waters breaking - in the middle of a crowded room, of course - just before contractions start. If you've been worrying that this scenario will happen to you, you can stop. Membranes rupture in less than 15 per cent of pregnancies and when it does happen, the baby's head tends to act like a cork at the opening of the uterus. (If you lie down, however, you may notice fluid leaking.)

You should stay calm - it may be hours before you feel your first contraction - and call your doctor right away. Your body will produce more amniotic fluid until the baby is born, so your carers may suggest you wait at home until contractions are under way or may suggest an induction. And if the week passes and there's still no baby? Don't panic - only 5 per cent of babies are born on their scheduled due date. Most doctors wait another two weeks before considering a pregnancy overdue. Check out how to cope with being overdue.

How's your life changing:

At each of your now-weekly visits, your caregiver will do an abdominal exam to check your baby's growth and position. She might also do an internal exam to see whether your cervix has started ripening: softening, effacing (thinning out), and dilating (opening). But even armed with this information, there's still no way for your caregiver to predict exactly when your baby is coming. If you go past your due date, your caregiver will schedule you for fetal testing (usually a sonogram) after 40 weeks to ensure that it's safe to continue the pregnancy. If you don't go into labor on your own, most practitioners will induce labor when you're between one and two weeks overdue — or sooner if there's an indication that the risk of waiting is greater than the risks of delivering your baby without further delay.

While you're waiting, it's important to continue to pay attention to your baby's movements and let your caregiver know right away if they seem to decrease. Your baby should remain active right up to delivery, and a noticeable slowdown in activity could be a sign of a problem. Also call if you think your water may have broken. Membranes rupture before the beginning of labor in about 8 percent of term pregnancies. Sometimes there's a big gush of fluid, but sometimes there's only a small gush or a slow leak. (Don't try to make the diagnosis yourself. Call even if you only suspect you have a leak.) If you rupture your membranes and don't start contractions on your own, you'll be induced.

Do you feel that time has flown since the beginning of your pregnancy? Then be prepared: these last few days will probably feel longer than the last nine months.

Most doctors will wait 10 to 14 days after your due date before considering your baby overdue and inducing labour. In the meantime, you and your husband might try relieving the tension with a little love-making - sex has been known to get labour started. If it doesn't, your doctor may offer a membrane sweep to try to get labour started naturally. If this is your first baby, your labour may be long and slow, but there are ways to speed things up both naturally and by intervention from your doctor.