36 weeks... (I'm kinda late on getting this one out)

<- That is one scary looking baby! Your baby 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. Your baby 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.) Most likely she's in a head-down position (nope - not that lucky). But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying he'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly.

Now that your baby is taking up so much room (who knew she could go all the way around the side of my waist?), you may have trouble eating a normal-size meal. Smaller, more frequent meals are often easier to handle at this point (soooooo true). On the other hand, you may have less heartburn and have an easier time breathing when your baby starts to "drop" down into your pelvis (hurry up kid, hurry up!). This process — called lightening — often happens a few weeks before labor if this is your first baby. (If you've given birth before, it probably won't happen before labor starts.)