Week 25 ~ Night Wakings

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your baby's the size of an cauliflower!

During month six, the average baby measures about 13.6 inches to 14.8 inches and weighs about 1.5 to 2.5 pounds. 

 

You’re 25 weeks pregnant and it’s probably dawned on you that soon you’ll actually have to deliver this baby. (A little scary, but exciting!) What’s cool is that most hospitals will let you preregister, which means you can put in your paperwork early, so the day you go into labor, you don’t have to stand around filling out a bunch of forms before you get admitted. Maybe you’re getting nervous about delivery, or maybe it’s your haywire hormones, but you might start to have trouble sleeping around week 25. This is a common complaint of many moms-to-be. Some people will tell you that’s just your body’s way of prepping you for sleepless nights with baby, but those comments won’t help you get the rest you need! Experiment with different strategies for getting some sleep. One idea is to drink extra water early in the day, so you can start tapering off your intake as you get closer to bedtime. That way, you might need less bathroom breaks during the night and can keep sleeping. After all, now that baby’s crowding your bladder, you’ve got to pee. A lot. www.thebump.com

 

See the bigger picture.

How your baby's growing

Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. Her weight — a pound and a half — isn't much more than an average rutabaga, but she's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn. She's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture.

How your life's changing

Your baby's not the only one with more hair — your locks may look more full and lustrous than ever. It's not that you're growing more hair, but thanks to hormonal changes, the hair that you'd normally shed is sticking around longer than usual. Enjoy the fullness while you can — the extra hair will fall out after you give birth.
You may also notice that you can't move around as gracefully as before. Unless your caregiver has advised you otherwise, it's fine to continue to exercise, but follow a few safety rules: Don't work out when you're feeling overly tired and stop if you feel any pain, dizziness, or shortness of breath. Don't lie flat on your back and avoid contact sports as well as any exercise where you're apt to lose your balance. Be sure to drink plenty of water, and make time for both warm-up and cool-down periods.

 When you have your glucose-screening test at 24 to 28 weeks, a second tube of blood may be taken at the same time to check for anemia. If blood tests show that you have iron-deficiency anemia (the most common type of anemia), your caregiver will probably recommend that you take an iron supplement.

www.babycenter.com
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As mentioned above, it is very helpful to remember to drink your liquids earlier in the day.  The more liquids you drink in the later evening and night will cause you to get up, and up, and up during the night to go to the bathroom.  I know this first hand and every pregnancy when i get to this point i have to remind myself to quit drinking water at night.  Many factors are inescapable like children waking you up for some reason or another, the neighbors dog barking, or an aching back.  This is however, something you can control, so start paying attention to your liquid consumption, how much and when.  You'll feel so much better if you do!

This also helps out towards the end of pregnancy when you'll notice that everytime you get up at night, the baby wakes up too.  I believe that by waking the baby at night, in the weeks before delivery, you will affect their sleep patterns after delivery.  You'll hear that it takes 6 weeks for a baby to get their day and night straightened out, but it doesn't have to be this hard.  Encourage your unborn baby to sleep at night when you do by not doing anything to wake him/her up at night!  This has worked every time with my babies and i enjoy not having to deal with a baby who's days and nights are all mixed up...you will too!