29 Weeks Pregnant – What To Expect
At 29 weeks pregnant, you are just over 7 months into your pregnancy and you will have just entered the third trimester.
This is the point in your pregnancy where you start to notice your belly starting to really grow, you and people around you will really start to notice that bump.
Your Baby & Fetal Development
The baby will approximately weigh two and a half pounds, and will be roughly 16 inches in length, when measured from head to toe.
At this stage, the baby’s head will begin to get larger, this is to make room for the brain that is starting to develop.
This is why the baby will start to react to certain things, such as light and sound.
As the baby grows there will less room in the womb and amount of kicking will become more frequent.
The baby’s skeleton will also begin to form and strengthen, amazingly the baby will need to consume 250 grams of calcium per day to sustain this bone growth.
At this stage of pregnancy, you should be eating plenty of calcium rich foods to help your baby’s skeletal development.
Your Body & Weight Gain
One of the most new things to your body will be the amount of kicks from baby. At first it’s amazing, but when you’re trying to get to sleep, it can be a little bit annoying.
However kicks aren’t just a fun element of pregnancy, you should be writing down the amount of times your baby kicks per day, that way you will know if there is something wrong with your baby, since a sudden lack of kicking can mean there’s a problem.
A change you may notice in your body is varicose veins, the chance of having varicose veins is higher if a member of your family suffered from them as well during pregnancy.
These are simply highly visible veins that are very noticeable, they are just an abnormal amount of blood in your veins. They are normally prominent in the legs, you can avoid developing severely painful varicose veins by not engaging in anything too strenuous or active.
You may also see the unwelcome return of constipation and heartburn, which is caused by the hormone Progesterone. The hormone will drastically reduce your rate of digestion, this will cause heartburn, constipation and also a build up of gas.
Another extremely uncomfortable effect of pregnancy that will become apparent is haemorrhoids, which is caused by the swelling of blood vessels in your rectum. Fortunately they will disappear a few weeks after your pregnancy.
If the pain of haemorrhoids becomes unbearable then get in contact your physician, they will be able to advise any treatments to reduce the pain, don’t use any over the counter medication before talking to your doctor though.
When you see drastic changes in your body, even if you recognise the chances, you should always contact your doctor or physician. After all, it is better to safe than sorry and you don’t want to take any chances.