36 Weeks--Doctor Visit

This week we were able to see Dr. Matthew Smith. He told us that Chloe is breech again and we are scheduled for another Ultrasound next Wednesday to see. I hope that our friend Leigh is working so that we will be able to get a higher resolution of the ultrasound!

Chloe is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. She swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby 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.) Since Chloe is not in a head-down position, our practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly. I do not want this at all. The ultrasound will tell us more.