This week the girls are still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. They should now weigh almost 6 pounds and be about 18 1/2 inches long.
They should also be shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered their little bodies, as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected their skin during their nine-month amniotic bath.
They will swallow both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of their first bowel movement. (Oh I'm so looking forward to that one! not...)
At the end of this week, the babies will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.)
I can feel their movements now very strong, some days it's more action than others but they are getting quite cramped, so I expect moving is hard for them now. Rightly likes nothing more than to get up under my ribs, which means I have to sit up as straight as I can as often as I can otherwise I simply can't breathe and it's very painful!
We now only have 8 days (or 7 days if you are Chris who doesn't count the Tuesday and today is mostly over too!) to wait until we meet them.
Can this be really happening?
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