It's Worth It

Some women experience so much pain when they are in labor and others have it so easy. A lot of women choose to have an epidural or spinal block to ease the pain of delivering a baby. The epidural and spinal block numbs you from the waist down and allows you to have no pain at all.

Push

Now comes the fun part of child birth; the labor. Now is when the pushing and counting and pushing and counting is done. Over and over again until that beautiful bundle of joy comes out kicking and screaming.

You Are Done - The Nineth Month

Your baby's organs have been finished forming for a long time now, and it's time for the finishing touches. The lungs are preparing for birth by secreting surfactant that will help them expand at birth. The kidneys are still producing a lot of urine each day. Your baby has been putting on around a half a pound a week up until week 37. At that point, weight gain slows down. The average birth weight is about seven and one half pounds. Your baby will measure between 18 and 22 inches at birth. Your due date is really just a guess. Most babies arrive between two weeks before the due date and two weeks after the due date. Labor happens when the baby signals to the mother's body that it is ready to be born.

The Eighth Month

By this month, your baby is getting ready to be born. Doctors say that at this point, each day in the womb is two less days that your baby would spend at the hospital. Now your baby's bone marrow is producing red blood cells and urinating about a half liter a day. During month eight, the baby's irises can dilate and contract in response to light and can open and close their eyes at will. The finger nails reach the ends of the fingers now. Your baby may even have a lot of hair on its head by now. And it weighs about three pounds and eleven ounces and is about 16 inches long.

The Final Trimester - Seven Months

The baby's movements will become smaller this month, because it is running out of room to move around. Instead of kicks, you'll feel smaller taps. The baby will start to turn its head down which is an automatic movement for most babies. Now your baby can sense when it is light and when it is dark. This might effect the baby's sleeping and waking patterns. The baby can now hear your heart beat and your digestive system and other bodily sounds, and your voice and the voices of others who are close by. The baby's eyelashes are developing. A baby boy's testes will start to descend at this time. Now your baby weighs about two pounds and four ounces and measures about 14 inches in length. Babies born at this stage have a good chance of living with the help of medical technology.

The End of The Second Trimester - Six Months

The lanugo, hair on babies body, darkens in color and the baby's eyebrows begin to form. The baby is moving more and practicing breathing. You may notice some practice contractions at this time, but don't worry they won't bother the baby. The baby is now depositing brown fat that will help him or her regulate body temperature at birth which will actually continue until birth. Now the baby weighs one pound and five ounces and measures about 11.8 inches in length. Some babies are actually born this early and have a chance to live depending on certain conditions.

The Fifth Month

The pads of the baby's fingers and toes are forming during this month. The finger prints are also developing. The baby's baby teeth are formed, and permanent teeth buds begin to form behind the baby teeth. If you are having a girl, her primitive eggs in her ovaries are starting to form. Loud noises may startle the baby in this month. The baby is covered in a fine hair called lanugo. The baby now weighs up to ten ounces and measures about 9.8 inches.

The Beginning of the Second Trimester

In your fourth month, the placenta has taken over production of the hormones needed to sustain your pregnancy. Your baby is also making some of its own insulin and bile. It even urinates into the amniotic fluid in small amounts. Your baby’s heart pumps about 25 quarts of blood a day. All of the teeth have formed and you even have a scalp hair pattern. Your baby is about 3 ounces and 6.3 inches and the gender may be detectable by ultrasound even though gender predictions at this point are much harder to rely on.

End of First Trimester - Third Month

During the third month your baby’s bones begin to harden. Your baby is already moving spontaneously, but you usually can’t feel these movements for awhile yet. Your baby’s eyes are large and open. Eyelids will form later. External ears have formed. External genitalia begin to separate, though it’s still very difficult to tell whether your baby is a girl or a boy without genetic screening. Your baby moves from being an embryo to a fetus. S/he also loses their tail. S/he also weighs about 14 grams and is approximately3 1/2 inches in length. By the end of this month, you should be able to hear your baby’s heart beat with a Doppler.

The Second Month

The second month of pregnancy is a critical month in fetal development. Your baby goes from being a blastocyst to an embryo. Early on in this month your baby’s heart will begin to beat. Also in the beginning of this month it’s hard to tell which way is up on your baby. It becomes very easy to tell which end is your baby’s head is and which end is your baby’s bottom by the end of this month. Your baby is now measuring between 8-11 mm from head to bottom.

The First Month Leading Up to Delivery

During your first month of pregnancy, you probably won't look or really feel pregnant. The baby is not really a baby at this state. It is more of just an embryo.