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29 Weeks Pregnant
 The Baby Your baby is now just over 2 pounds (1 kilo) and a little over a foot (36.5 centimeters) long. It's still over ten weeks to wait until he will appear. He will grow for about ten more weeks and you feel him move frequently. His movements are now pretty strong and if he kicks continuously against the same spot, it can get sore. If he is in the top part of your abdomen, he pushes against your stomach and at the bottom it's your bladder that may suffer. Your baby can still move to all sides and he has enough room to do summersaults. If he is positioned with his head at the bottom, you feel the wiggling and scratching of his little hands. If his head is in your upper abdomen, it seems like there's a basketball game going on. There are also days that you feel very little and that's when your child is asleep. If you are very busy during the day especially, he will keep quiet. At night, on the other hand, he comes to life and there is a good chance that he will keep you from sleeping. Either by kicking against an empty stomach which makes you wake up due to the heartburn, or by twisting so much that it wakes you up. Be patient for a few more months and then your child will get stuck with his little head in one place.Did you know that, as a matter of fact, you don't even feel half of all of his movements? Although the pattern of his movements will change from day to day, he is likely to establish some sort of waking and sleeping routine. While he's awake, you'll get used to certain rhythms and patterns. If you notice his movements change dramatically - weaker, or far less frequent - you may want to call your health care provider (HCP) to discuss it. Baby may be having a slow day. But don't worry unnecessarily, follow your instinct and do not hesitate to contact your HCP or doctor.
 MotherHow are you sleeping at night? You probably sleep less soundly than you did before you were pregnant. This is normal but that is of not much use to you. Due to the tingling in your legs, your tiny bladder, your calf cramps, your stomach that flutters and your belly that gets in the way, not to mention your spouse thumping on you so you'll stop snoring, it is difficult to stay asleep throughout the entire night. You can usually get to sleep if you have found a comfortable position with all the pillows arranged around you, but sleeping through the night... forget it! Lying on your back doesn't work at all and turning is no pleasure either. Moreover, you sleep so lightly that anything will wake you up. Once you are awake it will take hours for you to doze off again - at least that's how it feels to you.A kick in your bladder and you have to go to the bathroom again; it feels like your bladder is filling up all the time. And then it's hard to relax and go back to sleep. Do you frequently have weird, scary dreams also? More than usual? It's all part of the process. Unconsciously, you worry about how it will all go. Can you bring up a child and look after him, how will the expectant dad do and how will the other children - if there are any - react? Will trying to combine work and taking care of the baby be too much for you? You are confronted with worries and small problems, things that don't bother you at all during the day seem like huge obstacles at night.Try not to worry while you are lying awake and stew about the fact that you can't sleep. The human body needs only 3 to 4 hours deep sleep to sufficiently repair its cells. If you have slept during that time, it's just a matter of the so-called phase 1 and phase 2 sleep wherein dreams play the most important part. It's no wonder that you remember all your dreams because you are sleeping lighter than you did before your pregnancy.Sometimes it seems as if your sleep pattern is already changing so that once the baby is there you will be able to wake up when he needs you. Mother Nature has arranged that nicely.
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Keep a set nightly ritual. A short walk, a warm shower, a not-too-full belly, a cup of warm milk, no difficult tasks, read something relaxing and you are out like a light... |
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If you wake up in the middle of the night, don't get wound up but try to go to sleep again. Try your birth relaxation exercises, use yoga or meditation to help. Keep a pen and paper next to the bed to record any thoughts that you don't want to forget.Listen to a recorded book or some quiet music. If you need to, wake up your sleeping partner and ask for help. |
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 Father
Expectant fathers are not pregnant but they are waiting. That brings up a lot of questions: will our great relationship, the beautiful things that we share between the two of us, our unity, disappear once there are three of us? You already feel like the fifth wheel sometimes when your partner acts like she is in her own world and touches her belly all the time. Sometimes you also think about the upcoming labor. What are all the things that can go wrong - especially when you think about all of those strange medical tools you saw in the delivery room during the hospital tour? Do you think more about death now that there is a new life growing in your partner's tummy? Do you think more about the future, anyway, and if you can manage all of your responsibilities?But the most important question that keeps running through your head is: can you handle a baby? In other words: how do you take care of a baby? Changing diapers, comforting, bathing ... How do you handle all of these questions? What you must not do, in any case, is turn it into a competition of who is the most pitiful. Don't start complaining that your back hurts, too, when she comes puffing up the stairs. Naturally you can - unconsciously - get all sorts of small complaints or even something more serious and of course you lack attention. However, first of all this is only temporary; your partner is, at the most, nine months pregnant. And secondly this time is good preparation for what you will possibly have to do without in the period after the birth. Once the baby has arrived, you two also have to find a new balance. That's why this is a great practice period for your relationship. If you have something on your mind, talk about it and the solution will come by itself.
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If these ideas are bothering you, you might feel better if you take some concrete steps.If you haven't been participating in birth or baby care classes, get busy! Some dads find that setting up a life insurance policy, a savings plan, or a will is a tangible thing they can do to make them feel more like a family caregiver before the baby is born. |
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