Update on Serena - 37 Weeks Pregnant

Our baby is full term! This means that if Serena arrives now, her lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though our due date is still three weeks away.

Serena has likely hit the six-pound mark by now, and her length could be approximately twenty-one inches. She is practicing her breathing, but has increasingly less space to practice stretching and kicking. Her body fat has increased to about eight percent. By birth, it'll be about fifteen percent. While Serena could be born at any time, the longer she stays in, the more time she has to develop the connections in her brain in the pleasant peace and quiet of the womb. At this point, she can do just about all the things a newborn can. Just as I'm feeling stretched, Serena is being squeezed on all sides. Some of my antibodies are crossing the placenta, giving her immune system some support for her first days in the world.

Serena's skull isn't the only soft structure in her little body. Most of her bones and cartilage are quite soft as well (they'll harden over the first few years of life) — allowing for an easier journey as she squeezes through the birth canal at delivery. The skull bones are also not fused together yet so that the head can easily (well, relatively easily) maneuver through the birth canal. Growth will experience a slowdown now, both so Serena will be able to fit the narrow passageway to the outside and also so she can store up all the energy needed for delivery.

By now, many of Serena's systems are pretty mature, at least in baby terms — and just about ready for life on the outside. Blood circulation, for instance, has been perfected and Serena's immune system has matured enough to protect her from infections outside the womb. Other systems, however, still need a few finishing touches. One such notable example: digestion — which actually won't be fully mature until sometime after birth. Inside her little gestational cocoon, Serena has relied on the umbilical cord for nutrition, meaning that the digestive system — though developed — hasn't been operational. She will take the first year or two to bring that system up to speed.