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Your pregnancy - week 35

Your pregnancy - week 35 Alamy

Welcome to week 35

You're on the home strait of pregnancy. Birth and motherhood are fast approaching! If you're working, start thinking about whether or not you'll be returning to work. Even if you feel sure of your intentions, it's worth exploring all your options in case you feel completely different after the birth.

Perhaps you could work more flexibly, combining home working with going into an office? Have you thought about the possibility that your partner could perhaps alter his working hours to give you more options? Is there a chance you or your partner could work closer to home, so the travelling time is reduced? Or maybe you have a family member who would be prepared to offer some free childcare? If you're planning to use formal childcare and haven't got your name on any lists yet, don't delay any longer - you can always cancel your place if you change your mind.

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Inside story

Your baby this week weighs around 2.5kg (around 5.5lb). The crown-to-rump measurement is about 33cm (just over 13in). It might be possible for you to identify the way your baby's lying by having a good feel of your bump, especially when you're relaxing in the bath.

The head will feel harder than the backside and you might be able to make out the curve of the spine, as well as getting to grips with those jabbing feet, elbows and hands. This is because there's so little room left for manoeuvre that your baby is pressing tight against the walls of your uterus.

On the outside

Breathlessness might peak this week and next as the top of your uterus has risen again, this time to around 15cm from your belly button. Your internal organs are becoming more and more compressed by your growing bump, so you might feel fit to burst!

Keep practicing your breathing exercises to help expand your rib cage; eat little and often in order to reduce bouts of indigestion and heartburn; drink plenty of fluids to avoid constipation and fluid retention, and put your feet up as often as you can.

Uncomfortable at night? Experiment with cushions and body pillows to support your lower back and bump. A pillow between your knees when you lie on your side can help ease lower backache. Raising the foot of the bed slightly can help to ease swollen ankles as it encourages fluids to drain up.

Things to think about

Hot flushes can result from hormonal activity, and the fact that you're so much heavier than you were pre-pregnancy doesn't help. If you're finding it hard to keep cool – especially if you're pregnant during the warmer summer months follow these tips:

• Dress in loose natural fabrics
• Carry a can of special cooling spray (find in supermarkets and pharmacies) and spritz your face, chest and limbs
• Drink plenty of fluids
• Warm drinks like fruit or herb tea will help you to keep cool
• Carry a mini hand-held fan in your bag
• A pack of wet wipes can help give you an instant cooling
• Have a tepid shower or bath whenever you can and allow yourself to air dry
• At night use a low-noise fan next to your bed: if you stand a bottle of frozen water near it (in a drip-tray for when it starts to defrost) it'll cool the air as it blows around
• Beauty creams containing peppermint will leave your skin feeling cool and refreshed.

Your pregnancy

Wise words on motherhood

  • <p> &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not a mother until you&rsquo;ve had nits.&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>TV star Coleen Nolan</strong></p>
  • <p> &ldquo;I was not a classic mother...I didn&rsquo;t bake cookies. You can buy cookies, but you can&rsquo;t buy love.&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>Actress Raquel Welch&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  • <p> <strong><em>&ldquo;</em></strong>Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shovelling the walk before it stops snowing.&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>Actress Phyllis Diller</strong></p>
  • <p> &ldquo;Ask your child what he wants for dinner only if he is buying.&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>Author Fran Lebowitz</strong></p>
  • <p> &ldquo;Life is tough enough without having someone kick you from the inside.&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>Comedienne Rita Rudner</strong></p>
  • <p> &ldquo;Having a baby is like watching two very inefficient removal men trying to get a very large sofa through a very small doorway, only in this case you can't say, 'Oh, sod it, bring it through the French windows.'&quot;</p> <p> <strong>Comedienne Victoria Wood</strong></p>
  • <p> &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t qualify in the subject but you&rsquo;re expected to have a vast number of qualifications: chauffer, diplomat, vet, clown, Blue Peter presenter, chef, paramedic, critic, referee, weapons inspector, therapist, computer expert, liar.&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>Actress Imogen Stubbs</strong></p>
  • <p> &ldquo;A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.<strong>&quot;</strong></p> <p> <strong>Author </strong><strong>Tenneva Jordan </strong></p>
  • <p> &quot;The first time you leave your child at school you're faced with a tough decision - down the pub or back to bed?&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>Comedienne Jo Brand</strong></p>
  • <p> &quot;There never was a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p> <p> <strong>Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson</strong></p>
  • <p> &ldquo;A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.&quot;</p> <p> <strong>Actress Sophia Loren&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </strong></p>
  • <p> &quot;Any mother could perform the jobs of several air-traffic controllers with ease.&quot;</p> <p> <strong>American writer Lisa Alther</strong></p>
  • <p> &ldquo;Nothing will ever make you as happy or sad, as proud or as tired as motherhood.&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>Author Elia Parsons</strong></p>
  • <p> &quot;A mother &ldquo;is a nutritionist, a child psychologist, an engineer, a production manager, an expert buyer, all in one.&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>Anthropologist Margaret Mead </strong></p>
  • <p> &ldquo;Motherhood is &ldquo;having someone else to blame when there is a rude smell in the air.&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>Actress Jane Horrocks</strong></p>
  • <p> &ldquo;You know you really are a mother when: you use your own saliva to clean your child's face; your child throws up and you catch it.&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>Humorist Erma Bombeck</strong></p>
  • <p> &ldquo;The story of a mother&rsquo;s life: Trapped between a scream and a hug.&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>Cartoonist</strong><strong> Cathy Guisewite</strong></p>
  • <p> &ldquo;Motherhood is not for the fainthearted. Frogs, skinned knees, and the insults of teenage girls are not meant for the wimpy.&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>Author Danielle Steel</strong></p>
  • <p> &ldquo;Never being number one in your list of priorities and not minding at all.&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>Model and designer Jasmine Guinness</strong></p>
  • <p> &ldquo;Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help mom with the dishes.&rdquo;</p> <p> <strong>Writer P.J. O&rsquo;Rourke </strong></p>
Wise words

Funny pregnancy pictures

Funny pregnancy pics

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