Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) (feels more like a watermelon or a bowling ball to me, and I still have 40 days to go!) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. (yeah; let's shoot for 40 anyway, right?) They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.
By this week, fatigue has probably set in again (dead on Mr. Narrator), though maybe not with the same coma-like intensity of your first trimester (ha, you wish). Your tiredness is perfectly understandable, given the physical strain you're under and the restless nights of frequent pee breaks and tossing and turning, while trying to get comfortable. Now's the time to slow down (hmmm that one needs to be in bold; and caps, "SLOW DOWN") and save up your energy for labor day (and beyond). If you've been sitting or lying down for a long time, don't jump up too quickly. Blood can pool in your feet and legs, causing a temporary drop in your blood pressure when you get up that can make you feel dizzy.
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