31 Weeks, the countdown has begun. The last stretch of the pregnancy. Your baby may not be moving around as much as she/he will be running out of space in the uterus, but your baby still has plenty of growing to do and you can expect him/her to gain at least two pounds/ 900 grams before birth.
By 30 weeks your baby has the ability to produce tears. Your baby can also recognise your voice. Research has shown that the baby's heart rate slows down when the mother speaks, suggesting that your baby not only hears and recognises your voice, but is also calmed by your voice.
Varicose veins are usually quite harmless but unfortunately quite unsightly. They do tend to fade three to four months after your baby has been born but some do not disappear altogether.
You are now fully into the third trimester. It is important that you are paying attention to your baby's movements each and every day from pregnancy week 29. In general you will notice patterns of rest and wakefulness in your baby.
Pelvic Floor Exercises help to prevent problems such as urinary incontinence that could be experienced as you get older or after you have had a baby. The exercises are easy to do and can be done anywhere.
Your baby should now start to settle down into head position ready for birth. If born now and your baby is healthy then it should stand a 95% chance of survival although it would still need help with it's breathing as the lungs are not yet fully developed.
From week 26 studies have indicated that the foetus can respond to touch now. You may even notice a reaction to a bright light aimed at the uterus. This indicates good optic nerve function.
At 25 weeks the cortex of the baby's brain (the outer layer) is developing into layers in preparation for more sophisticated brain activity like thinking, feeling and planning in the years to come.
Throughout your pregnancy you will have a number of antenatal appointments with you midwife. Towards the end of your pregnancy the appointments will be more frequent. It is important that you attend these appointments so that your midwife can keep an eye out for conditions that may affect your pregnancy.
At 24 weeks your baby is called "viable" which means that if born now would have a reasonable chance of survival outside your womb in an intensive care unit.
Week 23 the baby's hearing is well established. Loud noises that the baby hears in the uterus such as the dog barking, a door slamming or a vacuum cleaner won't bother him/her in the outside world.
By week 22 you should definitely be feeling your baby move. If you pat your tummy or talk to him/her, they may kick in response. Studies suggest that this kind of interaction may even help neurological stimulation.
During pregnancy your baby can use up to a third of your body's iron supply, if you do not replace this iron supply with iron rich food such as red meat, poultry, fish, lentils, spinach, dried fruit and iron-fortified cereals then you could end up with anaemia.
You are officially over the half way mark at 20 weeks pregnant. Studies have shown that your baby will learn to distinguish your voice from other people's before she is born, and will be soothed by it after the birth.
You are now 19 weeks pregnant (or in your 20th week if that's how you prefer to count it) and are now half way through your pregnancy. Your baby now has tiny buds where her milk teeth will eventually grow. A few babies are even born with teeth.
18 weeks pregnant almost half way through. If you're having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If you're having a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, so if you are in luck you may get to find out the sex of your baby during your ultrasound.
17 weeks pregnant. It is around now that if you are in a stressful job or have high stress levels that you need to try and bring these stress levels down. Some studies have indicated that high levels of stress particularly between weeks 17 and 20 can result in preterm labour.
Do you get cravings at 14 weeks pregnant or is it just our imagination I am not sure whether I did ever get cravings even during my second pregnancy. I seemed to fancy a variety of different foods at different times during the pregnancy but the one that lasted the longest was peanut butter on toast and a love for the smell of coltar shampoo.
Your baby will now be about 3 inches or 7.5cm long and weigh about 13 to 20 grams the size of half a banana. From now on the fetus can grow as much as an inch a week.
One third of the way through the pregnancy. You have made it through the first hurdle, what are you to expect now in the next two thirds of your pregnancy?
Do babies follow the same feeding routines? My two babies had a similar pattern except my son at four months old had one less feed a day than my daughter had at the same age, but still gained weight and slept through the night.
Today we have posted a video of our 20 month old Daughter reading. Can you believe there were people out there thinking we had made all of this up? Tut Tut.
Almost three months. A week until the end of the first trimester. Read more to find out what is happening to you and your developing baby during the 11th week of pregnancy.
A couple of weeks ago we tried a little experiment to teach our toddler to read. We were astounded by the results, so have decided to follow through and it looks like she is going to be reading before she is 2 years old. We continue to outline our methods and results and hope other parents will help us refine the techniques.
10 Weeks pregnant, a quarter of the way through. Your little baby is developing rapidly and the heart can now be heard with the use of a dobbler. Read more to find out how your baby is developing.
We thought it would be another couple of years at least until our daughter would begin her journey to reading. After a silly experiment we never expected to work it looks like she could already be on her way.
I was 32 weeks pregnant when my waters broke and I was diagnosed with a condition called PPROM. In most cases when the waters break the baby is born within 72 hours. Our baby was born at 35 weeks 3 weeks after the membranes ruptured.
Amélie will be 17 months old next week, and this morning she had her 12th toddler swimming lesson. This article covers her latest 2 lessons, and I've tried to include more pictures than usual as the last few articles have been low on them. There is only one new technique but I would recommend reading this article as there is a lot more in it than usual.
This article rounds up the first term of toddler swimming lessons. In the New Year we will cover the second term. Apologies for our tardiness, we have had a rough time of it lately so haven't updated the site as often as we would have hoped.
9 Weeks pregnant and your little baby is approximately 13-17mm in length and weighs as little as 1 gram. Read more to find out how your baby is developing.
Last weeks lesson was canceled at the last minute because the pool temperature was too low. This is why out lesson 8 article is a week later than it should have been. Still no Clare today, so I took my Dad along to take the pictures. He's not as proficient with the steamy low light conditions as Clare so only a couple came out.
There hasn't been much new material in the last few articles, but today there was some progression. The most obvious of which was jumping in from the side.
Alex usually writes these articles, and I watch and take the photographs. This week however we have an unusually high workload so he is working and I'm penning today's toddler swimming article.
After a short break for half term, the swimming lessons have started again. So this morning we took our 14 months old daughter for her 4th toddler swimming lesson.
Our baby is a year old now and walking quite well. She spent the summer barefoot or with cheap plastic sandals on. Clare and I have both had nagging thoughts that now was the time to get her measured up and fitted up for her first pair of proper shoes. We had one bad experience and then a good one.
A continuation of our articles on teaching your toddler to swim. Our lesson this morning was very similar to last week's, so I'll concentrate on covering the differences. We forgot to take our camera so the pictures were taken on a mobile phone.
A run-through of our second toddler swimming lesson. For me the most interesting part was swimming up to the surface to hold onto the side of the pool. It was a busy lesson, quite a contrast to last week when we thought we may be the only ones attending.
We had our final baby swimming lesson this morning. From now on we are moving to the next phase, toddler swimming lessons. There were some new routines and techniques introduced in this final lesson which I assume will be carried through into the toddler lessons.
Amélie is a few days short of 13 months old, and has just completed her 36th swimming lesson. Unfortunately we are short on photographs from today's session, hopefully we can make up for it next week.
It's been a long summer break since the last formal lesson, but we have been taking our baby swimming every week on our own in-between. Today we got stuck into the proper lessons again, and there was a bit of a change in focus.
As I usually only go through the new routines, I've expanded this article to cover more of the lesson as a refresher. There is still new material though, including me swimming through a hoop. This is going to be a long one.
Some good new routines today, one of which was the first time we had seen our baby swimming above the water (with the use of a woggle) without being held. If you have been following along with these articles you won't want to miss this one.
Two months Pregnant. How is your baby developing? Read more to find out what is happening to you and your developing baby during the 8th week of pregnancy.
Today was our 30th baby swimming lesson and the first of the advanced course. Our baby has just turned 10 months old and started the lessons at 6 weeks old.
A bit of a non event this week, if you are just looking for new techniques then skip this article. If you are following our whole journey of teaching our baby daughter to swim, then it may be of interest to you. To cut a long story short she is currently sick with conjunctivitis.
Back from 2 weeks break for half term, we took our baby on her 27th swimming lesson this morning. Some new techniques were introduced again, so as usual I'll try and break them down so you can try too.
7 Weeks Pregnant. What is happening to you? How is your baby developing? Here is the low down on what is happening to you and your developing baby during the 7th week of pregnancy?
I've just got back from our 26th baby swimming lesson, and Clare has been teasing me in the car journey back about my serious face when I performed a new routine we learned today.
There are certain foods that should be avoided whilst pregnant. I have tried to compile an extensive list although not an exhaustive list of food that you should try to avoid over your nine months of pregnancy.
How is your baby developing? Are you feeling any different? Here is the low down on what is happening to you and your developing baby during the 6th week of pregnancy?
With less than 24 hours until 50 people were due to turn up at our house, the house was half decorated, no food prepared and half the people meeting us at the Church for the Christening had decided it would be better to meet at our house between 9:30am and noon. The Christening was to take place at 12 noon on Sunday 29th April 2007.
What is happening to your baby, your body, and your mind during the 5th week of pregnancy? After 2 inconclusive pregnancy tests I eventually found out I was pregnant and was eager to get the low down on what was going on inside my body.
As I write this article there is a home baby gender test available over the internet, which will determine the sex of your baby at just 6 weeks into your pregnancy.
Still suffering from overindulgence during last nights Christening after party, we took our 8 month old baby on her 24th swimming lesson this morning. I was hoping for a gentle session but it didn't turn out that way.
Are babies able to eat the same foods as us in their first year or do we have to limit what we introduce to them? Are some foods harmful to babies in their first year?
Our baby has just turned 8 months old, and today we took her on her 23rd swimming lesson. We got to do the glide swim which I had been itching to do for 3 weeks now.
Today we took our 8 month old baby to her 22nd swimming lesson. We have had a 2 week Easter break so were unsure if she would still be comfortable spending time underwater.
Amélie and myself had our first Mother and Baby Yoga class today. I have done yoga before but I was still not sure what to expect. Both of us had a fun time so whilst the class is still fresh in my mind I will tell you more about it.
Today we took our 7 month old baby to her 21st swimming lesson. One of the new techniques introduced today was the glide swim. Having seen that it looks like we are really going to be stepping up a level.
There are now quite a lot of articles about teaching your baby to swim on the Website. I've put together some diagrams, which you may find useful to reference as you read the articles.
Continuation of our teach your baby to swim articles. Today it was Dads turn again to take our baby swimming. She is almost 7 months old now and has been swimming since she was just 6 weeks old.
This lesson introduces some extentions of previously learned routines.
How often do you feed your newborn baby? How much do you feed them? Should you feed on demand or have a routine? After extensive research and chatting with a few friends I opted for a routine and our baby has slept through the night from birth.
Today was a different swimming lesson as it was the first time that I had been in the swimming pool with Amélie during her lesson. I have watched Alex and Amélie over the past 16 lessons and today we decided it would be nice for me to experience the lesson with her. Also to get a mothers point of view of the lesson.
Free easy to use pregnancy calculator, which will calculate your pregnancy calendar and milestones from the date of your last period. Alternatively if you know your due date it can calculate backward to give you your calendar.
Today we built on progress made in swimming lesson 16. Clare still sits quite far way so as not to distract Amélie, however she did manage to get some photographs this time although the quality isn't great from such a distance.
Our baby is exactly 6 months old today, and after a week off for half term we took her to her 16th swimming lesson. There are half a dozen new routines and techniques in today's article. Some variations on existing techniques, some brand new. One was a lot of fun, and one is safety related.
In today's swimming lesson my Baby and I were joined in the pool by a little fish. I'll miss that little orange fish, with his little yellow fins and bulging eyes. I wonder if he is available for babysitting?
As a new Parent you will want to know what to do in the unlikely but nevertheless possible case you find your baby is not breathing. We asked the health visitor to give us a crash course, and here is the low down. This is for an infant younger than 1 year old. For older children check out out other articles.
We started weaning our five month old baby a week ago. The first two days she was fine, then I started becoming slightly concerned as Amélie had not had a movement for nearly four days.
When should / can you wean your baby? We have been told at 3 months by one friend, 4 months by others, and 6 months by our Doctor. We tried to make it to 6 months (current medical advice) but last night we began weaning, here is the low down.
Today the swimming lesson was very much a lesson of two halves. A great start contrasting with a poor finish. At least she got her own back on me with the new routine 'daddy ... ready .. go ...'.
When we packed the car up today we were upbeat about taking our baby swimming for lesson number 12. All was well again (apart from my singing), and the memory of Amélie not enjoying the lessons is firmly in the past.
Our baby is now 20 Weeks old, and today was the first swimming lesson of the second term. We learned some new techniques to get baby swimming, and had a lot of fun too. I'm only describing new moves, so if there is something not explained check our previous baby swimming articles.
http://www.bringemup.com/categories/swimming
This is the follow on to Part One of this article. It is mainly for Dads but Mums may also be interested. This is my personal experience of the first month of being a first time Parent. How you may feel, the tasks you will be doing, and what to expect from your baby.
This is mainly for Dads but Mums may also be interested. This is my personal experience of the first month of being a first time Parent. How you may feel, the tasks you will be doing, and what to expect from your baby.
Our baby is now 4 months old and we have finished our first term of formal baby swimming lessons. We thought it was time we took her back to the local swimming pool for some fun before the next term begins in the new year.
Play our Christmas Snowball Shootout Game. It's fun and free to play. You have to stop the baddie from taking Santa's sack by throwing snowballs at them.
Today we got to go underwater with our babies. It was with some trepidation that I went into this the last lesson of the first term, as Amélie had not been enjoying the swimming lessons as much the last few times.
I've been putting this off for as long as possible, but I finally had to bite the bullet and buy a practical family car. We had even bought a baby car seat without owning a car to put it in. Here is our journey, along with some Website links I found useful.
Our daughter had her second lot of immunisations at three months old. An injection in each thigh one of which was so long it looked like it was going to come out the other side of her thigh.
Another developmental milestone, our baby is using her hands with purpose. I'm selflessly going to buy her something to help develop her hand eye coordination.
A continuation of our articles on teaching your baby to swim. We tried Amélie out at the public baths for the first time on Friday, and today she had her 8th lesson with waterbabies which was a bit of a disaster.
When I went into labour I had no idea what pain relief I wanted to use and very little about what options were available. All I knew was that I wanted a natural birth but would keep an open mind.
Our baby is now 3 months old, and this is the 7th article in our teach your baby to swim
series. She had her first lesson at just 6 weeks old, and now only has 3 more lessons left of the first term.
We agonised over the first round of immunisations that were due at 2 months. The controversial MMR jab is months away yet, but we were still concerned about any medical intervention. In this article we put our questions to a Doctor.
A continuation of our baby swimming series of articles. These articles follow lessons that get babies used to water and teach them to swim from a very early age. Taking advantage of the natural affinity they have with water before it is lost.
Amélie outgrew her Baby Grows early, but was lost in the next size up. We think the problem is that her legs are too long in proportion to the rest of her. There was an obvious solution though.
Amélie recovered from her post immunisation cold just in time for her 5th swimming lesson. I've also included a video from our first and second swimming lesson.
I think my previous article proved too good to be true. It may be a coincidence but 2 days after her first set of immunisations Amélie isn't doing too well.
This morning we took our baby for her first round of immunisations. Two injections, one in each thigh. One of many decisions we will have to make for her during her lifetime, I hope we made the right call on this one.
I've just got back from Amélie's 4th swimming lesson, so time to report back. I write
these literally minutes after I get home so I don't miss anything out.
I can't believe how many people paw at our baby, if they had their way she would be kissed more times than the Blarney Stone. Clare and I have had to develop polite ways to dissuade people, but I'm going to swing for someone soon.
Today I watched in complete amazement as our baby picked something up for the first time ever. I couldn't have been more surprised if my dog started talking to me.
Amélie has started chattering and vocalizing in other ways than crying. At a little under 2 months old it's not much to write home about, but to a Parent it's more interesting than the Da Vinci Code.
Today at 6 Weeks and 2 Days Old I took my daughter swimming for the first time, she even got to go under the water. We both had a really great time, so I'm writing this article while it's all still fresh in my mind.
A little over a month ago I had no kids, drove a two seater sports car, and was expecting a gentle transition into fatherhood. This morning I was reading my Sunday paper in the kitchen accompanied by 4 children (aged between 1 month and 13 years old), 4 dogs, and a cat. I was a family sitcom waiting to happen, all they needed to do was roll the cameras.
It seems like a milestone every day, today I gave Amélie her first bath. As I'm going to be taking her swimming I thought it would be a good idea for me to get her used to water, also Clare had a checkered past when it came to kids bath time.
This is part 3, the end stage of labor, something I will never forget so long as I live. A big dose of respect to every mother out there, I'll never look at a woman the same way again.
Nobody could ever explain to me what it was like to be in labour, nobody could really describe it and nobody could answer my one question 'how will I know when I am in labour?' They just said you will know when it happens. The last thing I expected was a 27 hour labour.
Today our daughter was born after 27 hours of labour, here are my thoughts and memories of the experience. It's a long one, so have split it into separate articles. This is part 1 the start of labour.
At over a week overdue I started looking into natural ways to induce labour. I'd even tried getting very drunk and hungover to see if 'sods law' could be used to bring it on.
Preparing for a baby can be expensive, High Chair, Baby Monitor, Bottle Warmer, Cot, Bath, Changing Mat, Pram, Bottles, Stair Gates, Car Seat, Sterilizers, Baby Bouncer, etc. The list is endless. But is it all necessary? Soon to be Dad thinks not!
Parents are nervous enough during pregnancy, the last thing you need is an accident to add to the worry, but that is exactly what happened to us when Clare was 37 weeks pregnant.
I'd never imagined I would ever have to face a decision to terminate a pregnancy.
If the nuchal scan showed any sign of abnormality this is a decision we would have to make.
